Four Corners

Why the Liberal Party came so close to toppling its leader after just 18 months in Government.

This week a joint Four Corners/Fairfax report reveals damning evidence that the investigations of key gangland murders in Victoria were deeply flawed, undermining the criminal justice system in the state. Terry Hodson and Carl Williams were career criminals. Hodson was shot twice in the head by a killer who'd come to his home with no apparent sign of a break-in. Williams was bludgeoned to death while in jail. Two murders - six years apart, both linked by key facts. Each was a police informant; both had made serious allegations of police corruption; both were killed with police acutely aware both men were in danger. Despite the extra-ordinary circumstances of the deaths, it's still not clear who ordered their killing. To this day, no one has been convicted of the murder of Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine. Now three insiders speak to reporter Nick McKenzie, casting new light on the murders. How was former detective Paul Dale linked to the Melbourne underworld? What was his relationship with Carl Williams? And why didn't police, tapping the phones of criminals, alert other police about the information they had gathered and the potentially lethal connections they'd uncovered? This story throws new light on a shocking chapter of Australian criminal history and clearly asks questions about the administration of justice in the past decade and the crucial issue facing all police forces, how to protect key informers in cases involving the criminal underworld and allegations of police corruption.

They were caught attempting to smuggle heroin out of Bali in 2005. Now Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are on death row and time is running out. This week on Four Corners, reporter Mark Davis goes inside the campaign to save them from a brutal execution. As a reporter he's followed the case for six years. He's met and interviewed Andrew and Myuran. Now he tells the story from the family's point of view, in a week of torment, as they waited hoping their sons might win a legal reprieve. He also talks to a respected Balinese, a top official in the jail and he spends time with the legal team and others who've given their time in a desperate bid to help try and save them from execution.

Australians love their sport. Australians also love a punt. Right now, Australians love betting on greyhound racing, the sport based on pushing dogs to their limits. With more than 40,000 races and more than 300,000 dogs running at tracks across the country each year, Australians are now wagering $4 billion a year on the sport. Prize-money has skyrocketed and greyhound racing is riding a wave of renewed popularity. The message to punters is that the sport has cleaned-up and modernised; the welfare of animals is now at the forefront of the industry. But things are not as they seem. This week Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna leads a gritty investigation into the darkest secrets of the sport, exposing the gruesome underbelly of greyhound racing. This investigation will rock the industry, and the sport, to its core. Making a Killing reveals widespread cheating and illegality across the country, and throws into question the validity of thousands of greyhound races and millions of dollars. How the cheating is actually done is so extreme it defies belief. What some trainers are prepared to do, to give their dogs the winning edge, will shock even the most hardened viewer. As someone who has looked closely at the sport tells Meldrum-Hanna: "Putting together animals, gambling and prize purses is a toxic mix. It's capable of turning men into monsters." What a small team of investigators with limited resources has managed to uncover in Making a Killing should put the regulators of the industry to shame and change the sport forever.

Unemployment in Australia is at its highest in 12 years. The Government's solution is an innovative billion-dollar scheme called Jobs Services Australia. But the initiative is failing. Now, a Four Corners investigation shows how the scheme is being manipulated and, at times, systematically exploited. Reporter Linton Besser reveals the corruption at the heart of the program aimed at helping some of this country's most vulnerable people. He travels to suburbs where unemployment is a way of life. He meets Kym, struggling to find work and pull her daughter out of a cycle of poverty. There to help are private and not-for-profit job agencies, paid by the Government to help find work for Kym and others like her. These agencies have blossomed thanks to the privatisation of the Commonwealth Employment Service in 1998, and are thriving on contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Unemployment is now big business in Australia. Each year the Government spends about $1.3 billion on its welfare to work scheme. But what happens when there are simply not enough jobs to go around?

Apple is the most valuable brand on the planet, making products that consumers love to buy. But how does this company treat its workers, when the world isn't looking? The BBC's Panorama program goes undercover inside the factory in China that makes the big-selling Apple iPhone 6. There we see the price paid by Chinese workers on the production line. Apple has made a series of promises that are supposed to protect the workers in factories that supply products for the company. Those promises are comprehensive and involve guarantees about working conditions, even detailing minimum standards of accommodation for workers who have travelled hundreds of miles to work in these factories. Under-cover cameras, though, show a very different picture. Employees are treated like they are prisoners. They are threatened and forced to sign work sheets that show them agreeing to long hours of overtime. Many fall asleep at the end of long shifts, making the work environment dangerous for themselves and others. But it isn't just the factories that turn out the products that create questionable conditions for health and safety.

The scourge of PTSD; as soldiers they fought the enemy abroad, now as civilians they battle a silent enemy within. Quentin McDermott reports.

An investigation into the shocking human cost felt by the survivors of an aviation crash.

The merchants of debt: how fast cash loans become a ruinous financial trap.

The crime that shamed India and divided the country.

Reporter Chris Masters revisits the Fatal Shore, the story of Gallipoli.

Australia has been gripped by a national debate over how to fund our university education. But perhaps there's a more important question: what is it worth?

On the frontline with the women taking up arms against Islamic State.

The dirty secrets behind Australia's fresh food.

An unflinching portrait of Australia's remote Indigenous communities and their struggle to survive.

This investigation from the BBC looks into the American authorities' relationship with the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in the world, the Sinaloa Cartel.

The bullying and bastardisation of young doctors in our hospitals.

A whodunit on the high seas.

Terror on Everest: extraordinary accounts and footage from the day the Nepal earthquake struck.

With the price of coal plummeting and our biggest customers turning to renewable energy, is Australia backing a loser?

On the trail of the traffickers exploiting the most unwanted people on the planet.

In this joint Four Corners/Fairfax Media investigation, we reveal how the mafia continues to flourish in Australia despite major police operations.

Part two of this special investigation goes inside one of the most ambitious organised crime investigations in Australian history.

Stories of courage and humanity in the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings.

From BBC Three. A personal and provocative look at life in France following the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks.

Inside the power plays of the mercurial mining billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest, as he fights for survival. Stephen Long reports.

Inside the hidden world of transgender escorts.

How India hijacked the game of cricket, and how Australia helped.

From PBS Frontline. Secrets, Politics and Torture: The ghosts of the CIA's controversial interrogation program.

Four Corners puts Labor leader Bill Shorten under the microscope.

Adele Ferguson returns to Four Corners with an investigation into the 7-Eleven business empire with revelations of dodgy bookkeeping, blackmail and the mass underpayment of its workforce.

The war of words over the Halal certification of food. Anti-Islam groups label it a religious tax. Claims of corruption and links to terrorism light up the blogosphere. Four Corners searches out the truth.

On Monday night, Four Corners will chart the events that led to the former Prime Minister's downfall.

A special investigation by Dr Norman Swan on the unnecessary testing and treatments choking the health system and making patients ill.

From Channel 4 (UK). As asylum seekers flee from the ISIS conflict zone, Four Corners brings you this timely and powerful story of the secret network rescuing women and children held captive by ISIS.

Next week on Four Corners: the Chinese billions flooding into Australian real estate.

Next on Four Corners, we take you inside the world of Australia's most formidable power couple - former union boss Kathy Jackson and Fair Work Commission Vice President, Michael Lawler.

From WDR (DE). Next on Four Corners, a documentary on the digital dissidents blowing the whistle on government surveillance around the globe.

Next on Four Corners, we examine the sobering reality of the damage done by alcohol to unborn babies.

In this report, BBC producer Merwais Miakhail takes us on a personal journey into Afghanistan's tribal heartland, known as the 'Valley of Death'.

In frank, funny and sometimes heartbreaking conversations, Australian kids take us inside their world and tell us why they're so anxious about the present and the future.

It was the random act of violence that authorities had been warning of and it left the nation crying out for answers. How could a 15-year-old school boy become a killer?

The tragic death of Luke Batty, killed by his father. Could his brutal murder have been prevented? Geoff Thompson reports.