Background Briefing is investigative journalism at its finest, exploring the issues of the day and examining society in a lively on-the-road documentary style.

Latest Programs

Sunday 5 Mar 2017

Sunday 26 Feb 2017

  • An Australian town rises up against homeless people who set up a tent shantytown at the local showground. Bronwyn Adcock reports on a big city problem that's come to Nowra on the NSW south coast.

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Sunday 19 Feb 2017

Sunday 12 Feb 2017

  • As Asian countries crack down on surrogacy, it's booming here in Australia. The rules say a surrogate can't be paid, but desperation is driving some people to flout the law.

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Sunday 5 Feb 2017

Sunday 29 Jan 2017

  • Summer series: Six babies are born still every day in Australia. Up to a third of those deaths might be preventable, but experts say fatalistic and outdated attitudes are holding back progress. Hager Cohen investigates.

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Sunday 22 Jan 2017

  • Summer series: The death of a young indigenous boy sparked a town riot at the court house, and the search for answers as to why he died. Sarah Dingle reports.

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Sunday 4 Dec 2016

  • Summer series: It was the student subsidy that was too good to be true. Students were the losers when billions were rorted by cowboys who spotted a government scheme that was just too easy to rip-off.

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Sunday 27 Nov 2016

Sunday 20 Nov 2016

  • Some of CSIRO's top women astronomers are quitting due to a dysfunctional workplace that they say protects harassers and punishes them instead. It's not just a loss for Australia's leading science organisation, but an appalling loss to the nation. Hagar Cohen investigates.

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Sunday 13 Nov 2016

  • US president-elect Donald Trump is on record saying the JSF is 'not a very good plane'. Reporter Sarah Dingle investigates one of our most expensive and troubled defence acquisitions ever.

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Sunday 6 Nov 2016

  • When a massive storm ripped through South Australia the state went into 'system black'. With the blackout barely hours old it became a political football. David Lewis investigates.

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Sunday 30 Oct 2016

  • When a 14-year-old Indigenous boy was allegedly run over and killed by a 55-year-old white man driving a ute, a WA mining town erupted. Sarah Dingle investigates death and desperation in Kalgoorlie.

    (Warning: This audio download contains strong language.)

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Sunday 23 Oct 2016

  • It's the murder trial that split Tasmania. But is Sue Neill-Fraser innocent or is she - as the jury found - a calculating, manipulative liar who murdered her husband?

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