Four Corners — Season 56
Australia's premiere current affairs programme, incisive investigative journalism.
About this season
Four Corners is Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. Broadcast on ABC1 in Australia, it premiered on 19 August 1961 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021. Founding producer Robert Raymond and his successor Allan Ashbolt did much to set the ongoing tone of the program. Based on the Panorama concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's epoch-making 1962 exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many Aboriginal Australians living in rural New South Wales.
Episodes (43)
1. Bad Sport
Aired 1 February 2016 • 45 min
Sarah Ferguson presents an investigation into the criminal networks that are threatening the integrity of sport, amidst the uproar over the match fixing revelations in tennis, Linton Besser reports.
2. Shark Alarm
Aired 8 February 2016 • 45 min
What's behind the rise in shark attacks, and is there anything we can do to stop them? Geoff Thompson reports.
3. Dying To Dance
Aired 15 February 2016 • 45 min
Dying to Dance. Inside the dance party drug scene. Caro Meldrum-Hanna reports.
4. Guns In The USA - Child's Play
Aired 22 February 2016 • 45 min
Exploring America's gun culture where kids learn to shoot and their classrooms are designed to be bulletproof. How America grapples with gun violence.
5. Catastrophic Failure
Aired 29 February 2016 • 45 min
In his first story for Four Corners, reporter Ben Knight travels to Brazil to investigate BHP's responsibility for the Samarco mine disaster that's destroyed lives and polluted an entire river system.
6. Money For Nothing
Aired 7 March 2016 • 45 min
It's the bank that's spent two years rebuilding its reputation after being exposed for ripping off its customers in a devastating financial advice scandal. An explosive corporate investigation by Adele Ferguson.
7. Safari: Paying To Kill
Aired 14 March 2016 • 45 min
The big game and big bucks in Africa's trophy hunting industry. Taking us into the darker world of illegal hunting where lions are tranquilised or partly domesticated to make them easier to shot.
8. Whatever It Takes
Aired 21 March 2016 • 45 min
A rare account from inside the Essendon doping scandal. Quentin McDermott reports.
9. State Of Fear
Aired 28 March 2016 • 45 min
The investigation into the scandal engulfing Malaysia's Prime Minister and the question that led to the arrest of our reporter and cameraman.
10. The Secrets Of The Super Rich
Aired 4 April 2016 • 45 min
This Four Corners investigation will reveal how the rich and powerful exploit the system. Reporter Marian Wilkinson follows the money trail.
11. Clive Palmer
Aired 11 April 2016 • 45 min
The rise and fall of Clive Palmer's business empire and political career. Hayden Cooper reports.
12. Inside Europe's Terror Attacks
Aired 18 April 2016 • 45 min
In the wake of the attacks in France and Brussels, a BBC Panorama investigation into Islamic State's European terror network and Western intelligence agencies' battle to stop it.
13. Bad Blood
Aired 25 April 2016 • 45 min
The bad blood between Australian doctors and the Federal Government over offshore detention.
14. Home Truths: What Happened To The Great Australian Dream?
Aired 2 May 2016 • 45 min
Ben Knight reports on the white hot issues of housing affordability and negative gearing and the generation left wondering if they will ever own their own home.
15. Callous Disregard
Aired 9 May 2016 • 45 min
Gold Walkley award-winning reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna follows the trail of evidence in the brutal death of a young woman as her family fights for justice.
16. Supplements and Safety
Aired 16 May 2016 • 45 min
Supplements and safety: an investigation into the billion dollar health supplement and vitamin industry. What's in all those pills and could they be doing you harm?
17. Money And Influence
Aired 23 May 2016 • 45 min
As we head into the third week of the election campaign, Four Corners examines how money and influence operates in the shadowy world of political donations.
18. The Baby Business
Aired 30 May 2016 • 45 min
With an increasing number of women turning to fertility treatments to help them conceive a baby, Four Corners investigates, are women being sold false hope by the IVF industry?
19. Ripped Off
Aired 6 June 2016 • 45 min
The scams, fraud and incompetence leaving remote communities exploited and betrayed. Linton Besser journeys almost 5000km across Australia in search of who's to blame.
20. The Miracle Of Kobani
Aired 13 June 2016 • 45 min
We meet the people of the small Syrian town who defeated ISIS and are determined to rebuild their lives in the rubble.
21. The Deputy And The Dark Horse
Aired 20 June 2016 • 45 min
The Deputy and the Dark Horse: Barnaby Joyce vs. Tony Windsor in the contest that could bring down the Deputy Prime Minister.
22. The Leaders
Aired 27 June 2016 • 45 min
With the election only days away, Gold Walkley and Logie Award-winning reporter Sarah Ferguson interviews Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. What will she ask?
23. Future Proof
Aired 4 July 2016 • 45 min
With startling predictions that more than 5 million Australian jobs will disappear in the next 15 years, as a result of technology, we look at the future of work and ask are we preparing our kids for the jobs of the future?
24. Soldiers Of Allah
Aired 11 July 2016 • 45 min
Going undercover with an ISIS terror cell. For six months this intrepid reporter infiltrated and secretly filmed a terrorist cell as they made plans for an attack.
25. The Race To Dope
Aired 18 July 2016 • 45 min
The Race To Dope: The elite athletes blowing the whistle on how they cheated the system.
26. Australia's Shame
Aired 25 July 2016 • 45 min
Australia's Shame: The brutalisation of children behind bars. This confronting investigation by Caro Meldrum-Hanna will send shockwaves around Australia.
27. Insult To Injury
Aired 1 August 2016 • 45 min
Insult To Injury: How the system damages cops with PTSD. Quentin McDermott reports.
28. Man On A Wire
Aired 8 August 2016 • 45 min
Man on a wire: How long can Malcolm Turnbull survive?
29. Milked Dry
Aired 15 August 2016 • 45 min
Milked Dry: The awful price being paid by Australian dairy farmers for the milk we drink. Deb Whitmont reports.
30. Children On The Frontline
Aired 22 August 2016 • 45 min
Children On The Frontline: Escape from Aleppo, one family's extraordinary story of life in the rubble of Syria and their escape to a new life, told through the eyes of four children.
31. Cyber War
Aired 29 August 2016 • 45 min
Cyber War: How hackers are threatening everything from your bank account to the nation's secrets. Linton Besser reports.
32. Brexit: The Battle For Britain
Aired 5 September 2016 • 45 min
The EU referendum result shocked many, but as this BBC film shows the warning signs were there. In interviews with key players, the program charts the tactics & spin used in the campaign.
33. Rehab Inc.
Aired 12 September 2016 • 45 min
Rehab Inc: The high price parents pay to get their kids off ice. Ben Knight reports.
34. Backing Bourke
Aired 19 September 2016 • 45 min
An outback town's bold experiment to save its young people from a life of crime.
35. Frat Boys
Aired 26 September 2016 • 45 min
Inside America's university fraternities. They're the elite clubs where testosterone, alcohol & campus life come together in a potent mix. Normally media shy, one frat house agreed to let the cameras in.
36. China Rising
Aired 3 October 2016 • 45 min
China Rising: The challenges for Australia as China and the US struggle for supremacy in Asia. Peter Greste joins Four Corners for a special report.
37. For Better Or Worse
Aired 10 October 2016 • 45 min
For Better or Worse: How the personal has become political in the fight over same-sex marriage. Four Corners investigates the politics behind the plebiscite debate.
38. The Forgotten Children
Aired 17 October 2016 • 45 min
They're the human face of Australia's tough border policies - the more than 100 refugee children living on Nauru. Debbie Whitmont reports.
39. Copwatchers
Aired 24 October 2016 • 45 min
The activists using cameras to fight back against police brutality in the US.
40. Big Fish
Aired 31 October 2016 • 45 min
Four Corners investigates the business of salmon farming. A report by Gold Walkley Award-winning journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna.
41. Crossroads Afghanistan
Aired 7 November 2016 • 45 min
Crossroads Afghanistan: A heart-stopping journey on one of the most dangerous roads in the world, right through the heart of Taliban country.
42. Broken Homes
Aired 14 November 2016 • 45 min
Broken Homes: On the frontline of Australia's child protection crisis.
43. A Sense Of Self
Aired 21 November 2016 • 45 min
When acclaimed TV journalist Liz Jackson is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, crippling her with pain & panic attacks, she turns the lens on herself to make the most challenging story of her life.