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.
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 22, 2026 • 36min
01 The Unbreakable Cult | Hands on
When Serge Benhayon had a spiritual epiphany sitting on the toilet nearly 30 years ago, he says he became possessed with all the knowledge of the universe.
Oct 19, 2026 • 3min
INTRODUCING... The Unbreakable Cult
Serge Benhayon has been leading a cult out of the Byron Bay hinterland — just south of the Queensland border — for more than a decade. He was found by a jury to be a charlatan who swindles cancer patients. Yet every time he comes under attack, his followers close ranks around him.
Oct 15, 2026 • 39min
03 Dark Menace | Operation Queenstown
Before police raided Mark Dennis’s Sydney terrace, two tradies saw something inside that left them rattled. At the front door, a doormat told visitors to “come back with a warrant”. But it was what covered the interior walls that stayed with them for years.
Oct 8, 2026 • 38min
02 Dark Menace | What Happened At Sunrise
As the founder of a famous Cambodian orphanage rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars, like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, a Sydney barrister was quietly becoming one of the charity's most powerful backers. To staff, Mark Dennis SC was “the big boss”. Few dared to question him. Even when he made them feel afraid.
Oct 1, 2026 • 42min
01 Dark Menace | The Chairman's Secrets
He was a silk at Sydney's most prestigious criminal defence chambers. And the former chairman of a celebrated charity protecting vulnerable children, where some called him "godfather". But he went by the alias of "Dark Menace" — and was allegedly hiding a sinister double life. Within weeks of that becoming known, he was dead.
Sep 29, 2026 • 1min
INTRODUCING — Dark Menace
When police raided a terrace in Sydney's inner west, they found an iPad with a note: if this device connects to the internet, its contents will delete. That house belonged to one of Sydney's top criminal barristers. A driven man who moved through courtrooms and corridors of power with ease. But the man had dark secrets too. And so, when the truth about him surfaces, it sets off a reckoning that stretches from Sydney’s most prestigious criminal defence chambers to the neon-lit bars of Phnom Penh. alleged crimes were hidden for so long.
Sep 10, 2026 • 32min
03 'This Bloody Machine' | The Empty Chapel
It would be a game changer if it happened. But the challenges facing a proposed proton cancer treatment centre in Sydney are stacking up. It begs the question: why are an unpaid volunteer and private developer stepping in to provide a life-saving cancer treatment that Australian families have been demanding for years?
Sep 3, 2026 • 32min
02 'This Bloody Machine' | The Other Plan
Loretta Florence, an ABC investigative reporter focused on health and accountability, and Julia Bergen, a journalist covering public policy and social issues, investigate Sydney’s proposed proton therapy centre. Families travel overseas for children’s cancer treatment while insiders question the project’s funding, lease and flood-prone site. Internal plans appear to replace the treatment centre with a cheaper alternative, raising fresh questions about public promises, government approval and Australia’s stalled proton therapy opportunity.
Aug 27, 2026 • 31min
01 'This Bloody Machine' | Jewel in the Crown
Australia’s first proton therapy centre promises a breakthrough for cancer treatment, but its ambitious Sydney project faces mounting questions. The investigation follows Sue Bleasel’s 20-year campaign, disputed institutional partnerships, uncertain funding, and a developer’s shifting promises. Meanwhile, families forced to seek treatment overseas reveal the urgent human cost of Australia’s proton therapy shortage.
7 snips
Aug 13, 2026 • 1min
TRAILER – Introducing 'This Bloody Machine'
Julia Bergin, an investigative ABC reporter focused on accountability, health and social issues, introduces a new investigation into Australia’s long-promised proton therapy machine. Families forced overseas, a half-billion-dollar Sydney precinct, political backing and secretive deals collide. Follow the money, shifting stories and unanswered questions behind a cancer-treatment dream that may be too good to be true.
