
Background Briefing
Background Briefing brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear.
Latest episodes

Nov 13, 2021 • 41min
The hidden terror that's splitting people's identities
Reporter Tracey Shelton spent years as a correspondent giving a voice to people in war zones who'd experienced trauma. When she returned to Australia, she was surprised to find people here suffering similar symptoms, so she set out to investigate the cause.

Nov 6, 2021 • 37min
Vulnerable, unvaxxed, and running out of time
These people were supposed to be near the front of the queue for Covid vaccines.But in Yarrabah, an Aboriginal community near Cairns, local doctors are still scrambling to get the vaccination rate above 50%With only six weeks until the Queensland borders open, reporter Mayeta Clark went to find out why.

Oct 30, 2021 • 45min
How a conspiracy and a question led to 18 years jail
He was sentenced for a crime that shocked Australia: the terrorist plot to attack Sydney's Holsworthy barracks. But Nayef el Sayed's family are still confused about why he's doing so much jail time, and they're not the only ones with questions about the law used to convict him.Mahmood Fazal investigates.

Oct 5, 2021 • 29min
Untouchable Assets | Part 3
As government investigators close in, Asiaciti realises it hasn't been keeping a close watch on some of its risky clients.In this series finale, Mario Christodoulou traverses from Swiss mountaintop chateaux to a Nigerian coup d'etat, to find out exactly what money was secretly flowing through Asiaciti's products.Then, he takes everything he's found to the man who built up the Asiaciti empire from nothing: Graeme Briggs.The ABC reached out to every person named in this story, we received no response from Du Shuanghua.

Oct 4, 2021 • 38min
Untouchable Assets | Part 2
A rock concert ticket scalper and a controversial entrepreneur turn to Asiaciti for assistance.Using products from Graeme Briggs' company, they lock away their riches on a small Pacific island nation, out of the reach of authorities.But soon, Asiaciti learns it's got its own crisis to deal with: a global media scandal that threatens the company's very existence. Mario Christodoulou reports.

Oct 3, 2021 • 42min
Untouchable Assets | Part 1
Graeme Briggs enjoys rugby, collecting Japanese fountain pens, and looking after other people's money. The problem for Graeme and his company Asiaciti is that among the many legitimate clients, some of them turn out to be corrupt politicians, fraudsters, and criminals. If that isn't bad enough, nearly two million files from his company's server have been leaked to journalists. So what's Graeme Briggs going to do now? Mario Christodoulou investigates.

Oct 2, 2021 • 40min
The scientists and shamans of psychedelic retreats
There's a landmark project underway in Melbourne to find out whether psilocybin - the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms - can be used to improve end-of-life experiences.But many Australians have already turned to the underground because they're convinced psychedelics improve their mental health.Geoff Thompson investigates whether it's worth all the risks.This is a repeat of a program that aired in February 2021.

Sep 25, 2021 • 35min
The Sydney security expert helping Afghan journalists escape
Geoff Thompson follows the dangerous journeys of three Afghan journalists as they attempt to flee the Taliban. Two of them succeed with the help of an Australian man who engineers an escape route for them from his house in Sydney.

Sep 18, 2021 • 43min
'The ghosts are not silent'
An awkward Christmas lunch conversation sends reporter Sam Carmody on a search for answers about his family history. The stories he finds out about are so disturbing, they have implications not just for his family but for the entire region, where his ancestors have a statue in their honour, a highway and even a town named after them.

Aug 14, 2021 • 44min
What it's like to face terrorism charges
Since the September 11 attacks, Australia has enacted a staggering number of laws to counter the threat of terrorism. Over one hundred people have been charged with terror-related offences here, but very few have spoken to the media.One Australian man who was charged with offences that can carry up to 25 years in jail, shares his story with Mahmood Fazal for the first time.