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Background Briefing

ABC Australia

Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention.

The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia.

This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable. From scams and fraud to schooling and health scandals, tech and social media digs, police exposes and various unsolved cases, each episode of the Background Briefing podcast is a must-listen.

Recent series include:

Hometown Boys exposed how a terrible crime fractured a local community around a local football club.

The Invisible Killer: a forensic investigation into unexplained deaths in aged care after a doctor makes an unusual discovery.

The Favourite: how a schoolyard secret stayed hidden for years.

Stop and Search, which uncovered the mechanics of power and police accountability.

Before and After investigated medical hype, telehealth, body image, cosmetic procedures and consumer risk.

Beef: how small feuds escalate into serious disputes.

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  • 26 episodes
  • Avg 26 min
  • English

Episodes 26

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  • March 20 · 32 min

    02 The Road to Bondi | A Test of Character

    This man fled Iran after being imprisoned and tortured for protesting the regime. Known only as AB, he came to Australia hoping to start again — and, in many ways, he did. He found love and started a family. But he also made poor choices, fell into drugs and became violent towards his partner. Now his future in Australia is in jeopardy. He was living with those consequences when the Bondi terror attack unfolded around him. He ran towards the gunfire, and risked his life to help others. Now the c

  • March 13 · 42 min

    01 The Road to Bondi | Father and Son

    You think you know the story. You know how it ended. But you don’t know how it began. In the first episode of The Road to Bondi, reporter Josh Robertson traces the decades-long path that led a father and son to carry out their plan. He takes us from the narrow streets of old Hyderabad in India, where a young man grew up in a respectable family, to the western Sydney suburbs, where he begins to unravel. 

  • March 5 · 1 min

    TRAILER — Introducing The Road to Bondi

    In an ordinary Australian suburb, a father and son are secretly planning something terrible. One fateful summer evening, their path brings them crashing into the lives of strangers from around the world whose own stories haven’t yet been told. You might think you know the story, but there's so much more to tell. In a new three-part series, Background Briefing investigates how the road to Bondi began long before the first shots rang out.

  • February 20 · 38 min

    06 Hometown Boys | Not the only one

    Insiders from the Harrow-Balmoral football club decide to break the code of silence. For Elise, it’s time to rebuild her life. But her story inspires other women to emerge with their own troubling accounts of the town’s club culture. When the convicted men were freed, Balmoral threw them a hero’s welcome; after everything, what was actually learned? 

  • February 13 · 30 min

    05 Hometown Boys | 'Luke, Maybe'

    A key witness submits a startling new statement that topples the guilty verdict and forces a retrial. This time, the men accused will not give evidence. But Lisa Hutchins, the trusted bush nurse will take the stand again — now for the defence.

  • February 5 · 27 min

    04 Hometown Boys | The Trial

    As the criminal trial unfolds, witnesses from Balmoral waver on the stand, and the judge is "taken aback". The courtroom is heaving with supporters of the accused but the verdict is not what they're expecting.

Showing 21–26 of 26 episodes