Four Corners — Season 57
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 (41)
1. "A Helluva Ride" - The Trump Revolution Begins
Aired 6 February 2017 • 45 min
Four Corners returns with an incisive exploration of how President Trump will wield power. Reporter Michael Brissenden interviews key players in the Trump camp & Republicans on the political earthquake rippling across the US.
2. Swallowing It
Aired 13 February 2017 • 45 min
How Australians are spending billions on unproven vitamins & supplements. With 7 out of 10 Australians taking a complementary medicine, Four Corners looks at the regulation & marketing of these products.
3. Highway To Hell
Aired 20 February 2017 • 45 min
A Report from the Frontlines in the Battle Against the Islamic State. As the war against IS intensifies, Matt Brown reports from the frontlines of Mosul - the biggest urban battle since World War II.
4. Oceans Of Plastic
Aired 27 February 2017 • 45 min
What happens to the plastic we throw away? A report on how our rubbish ends up in the ocean and the damage it causes.
5. Crown Confidential: Packer's Losing Hand
Aired 6 March 2017 • 45 min
The Crown empire have bet big for years on China. Four Corners investigates what went wrong for James Packer's gambling & entertainment operations in China & what this might mean for its Australian business.
6. The Price Of The American Dream
Aired 13 March 2017 • 45 min
Can President Trump keep his promise to make America Great Again? Four Corners meets the human face of America's working poor as they struggle to feed their families.
7. The Age of Consequences
Aired 20 March 2017 • 45 min
Four Corners brings you the views of distinguished former members of the US military and senior policy makers who warn that climate change is not only real, it's a threat to global security.
8. Fighting The System
Aired 27 March 2017 • 45 min
The mothers and carers battling for justice and protection for their disabled children.
9. Please Explain
Aired 3 April 2017 • 45 min
Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna reveals the brutal backroom politics ripping into Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.
10. Cracking The Code
Aired 10 April 2017 • 45 min
Cracking the Code: What Facebook really knows about you. How one of the world's most powerful corporations is turning our lives and our data into vast profits, in ways we have no control over.
11. Syria's Disappeared
Aired 24 April 2017 • 45 min
This powerful film shines a light on the barbarism of the Syrian regime at a time when the future of President Assad is being argued over by the world's most powerful nations.
12. After The Game
Aired 1 May 2017 • 45 min
After the Game: Elite athletes blow the whistle on the high price paid for sporting glory.
13. Power Failure
Aired 8 May 2017 • 45 min
Four Corners investigates how a nation as rich as Australia is in coal, gas, sunshine and wind, could find itself in an energy crisis.
14. Gun Runners
Aired 15 May 2017 • 45 min
It was one of the biggest illegal firearms busts in Australian history. A criminal syndicate brazenly smuggling weapons into the country exposing the failings in the nation's border security. Ben Knight reports.
15. The Lindt Cafe Siege (Part 1)
Aired 22 May 2017 • 45 min
A 2-part investigation into the Lindt Cafe siege. Sarah Ferguson talks exclusively with families of Tori Johnson & Katrina Dawson about their experience on the day & their devastation, anger & frustrations in the aftermath.
16. The Lindt Cafe Siege (Part 2)
Aired 29 May 2017 • 45 min
Part Two takes you inside the Lindt Cafe & the police operation on the day, with a forensic examination of how the disaster unfolded. We expose what went wrong & ask whether Australia is prepared for another terror attack.
17. Power And Influence
Aired 5 June 2017 • 45 min
An investigation uncovering how China's Communist Party is infiltrating Australia, tracking the activities of Beijing-backed organisations and the efforts made to intimidate CCP opponents.
18. Breaking The Brotherhood
Aired 12 June 2017 • 45 min
The brave few who blew the whistle on Australia's most corrupt police force.
19. Rise Of The Trolls
Aired 19 June 2017 • 45 min
With the rise of social media and smartphones in virtually every pocket, internet trolls are only ever a click, tap or swipe away. Four Corners takes you into the dark side of the internet.
20. Bleed Them Dry Until They Die
Aired 26 June 2017 • 45 min
The retirement villages ripping off retirees. Adele Ferguson investigates.
21. The Company He Keeps
Aired 3 July 2017 • 45 min
This Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about Presidential conflicts of interest.
22. Forget Me Not
Aired 10 July 2017 • 45 min
A story of identity, love and dignity, introducing three families who tell their stories about living with dementia.
23. Dark Secret
Aired 17 July 2017 • 45 min
In Philadelphia in the early 2000s, a team of lawyers embarked on an investigation led by a formidable District Attorney. What they uncovered was one of the worst criminal cover-ups in US history.
24. Pumped
Aired 24 July 2017 • 45 min
Stretching from Qld to SA, billions of dollars in taxpayer's money has been poured into rescuing the rivers & streams of the Murray-Darling Basin. Linton Besser investigates where the money, & the water is going.
25. Weapons Of Mass Surveillance
Aired 31 July 2017 • 45 min
The digital age has revolutionised the way we live our lives. With the technology of smartphones governments have been given the ability to spy on their citizens on an astonishing scale. Nawal Al-Maghafi reports.
26. Trashed
Aired 7 August 2017 • 45 min
The dirty truth about your rubbish. Four Corners investigates the big business of rubbish & where it ends up. In interviews with insiders, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna exposes hidden practices occurring in the waste industry.
27. Inside The Greens
Aired 14 August 2017 • 45 min
The Greens have been a party in disarray. As the party faces its biggest challenges since its foundation, Four Corners investigates if the party's actions live up to their spin. Louise Milligan reports.
28. Betting On The House
Aired 21 August 2017 • 45 min
Australians are carrying more personal debt than ever. We hold the second highest level of household debt in the world. Michael Brissenden investigates the forces driving our debt fuelled housing boom & the risks it poses.
29. Blood Business
Aired 28 August 2017 • 45 min
Giving blood is a selfless act that saves lives. For many, it's a way of giving back to the community. In other countries, blood has become a lucrative commodity fuelling a global trade worth billions of dollars.
30. Combustible
Aired 4 September 2017 • 45 min
In the wake of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in London, reporter Deb Whitmont investigates the risk of flammable aluminium cladding in Australia & the dangerous legacy of failed regulation in the building industry.
31. North Korea - Murder In The Family
Aired 11 September 2017 • 45 min
How Kim Jong-un's murderous ambitions & nuclear weapons program are threatening world peace - tracing his rise to power, his aggressive pursuit of a nuclear weapons program to eliminating potential rivals.
32. All That Glitters
Aired 18 September 2017 • 45 min
Developers, deals and donations on the Gold Coast. In this pro-development town, a series of controversial billion dollar proposals have prompted a collection of unlikely allies to say enough is enough. Mark Willacy reports.
33. The Ransom
Aired 25 September 2017 • 45 min
Inside the murky world of international kidnapping and hostage negotiation. Every year more than 30,000 people are kidnapped around the world. A small number are taken for political reasons, many more held for financial gain.
34. Digging Into Adani
Aired 2 October 2017 • 45 min
The dubious dealings of India's corporate colossus. Four Corners travelled to India to dig into the business practices of Adani, the corporate giant planning to build Australia's biggest mine site. Stephen Long reports.
35. Contamination
Aired 9 October 2017 • 45 min
It's one of the biggest environmental scandals in Australian history. Harmful chemicals, leaching into the ground & waterways, contaminating our water. Linton Besser investigates the toxic legacy of fire-fighting foam.
36. Hillary Clinton
Aired 16 October 2017 • 45 min
In her only Australian TV interview, Hillary Clinton speaks exclusively with Sarah Ferguson. Candid, open & at times angry, the former presidential candidate talks about what went wrong & her fears for the future.
37. What's Wrong With The NBN?
Aired 23 October 2017 • 45 min
As the National Broadband Network passes the halfway point in its rollout, Geoff Thompson investigates why Australia's fast broadband is stuck in the slow lane, leaving a growing number of customers disappointed and angry.
38. Germany's New Nazis
Aired 30 October 2017 • 45 min
A right-wing nationalist party is centre stage in German politics for the first time since Hitler's Nazi Party. We chart the rise of a notorious anti-immigrant group which stands accused of a wave of violent attacks.
39. Inside The Tax Havens Of The Rich And Powerful
Aired 6 November 2017 • 45 min
Inside the secretive world of tax havens where corporations and the wealthy operate far from public view. In a global investigation we reveal the lengths some business figures and global corporations go to avoid paying tax.
40. Malcolm In A Muddle
Aired 13 November 2017 • 45 min
In the week of the same-sex marriage survey result Four Corners looks into the battle for control raging inside the Liberal Party. Whatever the survey result, the politicking will be far from over. Michael Brissenden reports.
41. The Murphy Scandal
Aired 20 November 2017 • 45 min
Justice Lionel Murphy was one of the most senior political and legal figures in Australia. He was also at the centre of one of the most extraordinary scandals in our nation's history. Debbie Whitmont reports.