Four Corners — Season 53
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. Lance and the Truth
Aired 4 January 2013 • 45 min
He's a drug cheat, a bully and a liar who abused his best friends to keep a terrible secret, but has Lance Armstrong finally told the truth? The answer - almost certainly - is no.
2. America's Broken Dreams
Aired 11 February 2013 • 45 min
It may be the wealthiest country in the world but as documentary maker Philippe Levasseur shows in America's Broken Dreams, when you lose your job in the US there is very little to protect you. In 2008 the global financial crisis hit the poor first, but now America's middle class is being devastated.
3. Reach For The Sky
Aired 18 February 2013 • 45 min
It's been called the smartest fighter plane on the planet but it is way over budget and still not delivered. Can the F.35 live up to the hype, or is the project set ot crash and burn?
4. Punch Drunk
Aired 25 February 2013 • 45 min
Australians love a drink, and some see no problem at all with drinking to excess. But now doctors, police and paramedics have called 'time', warning that alcohol-fuelled violence has reached crisis levels.
5. A Betrayal of Trust
Aired 4 March 2013 • 45 min
With Australia's population ageing, governments have made it very clear, you had better save and plan for your own retirement. But how can you be sure your money is in safe hands...
6. The Enemy Within
Aired 11 March 2013 • 45 min
How did a Lebanese immigrant move from owning an ethnic newspaper business to become the most influential politician in the State...
7. The Untouchables
Aired 18 March 2013 • 45 min
This PBS-Frontline investigation asks why the US Department of Justice has failed to act on credible evidence that Wall Street deliberately packaged toxic loans and sold them to investors.
8. Mission Accomplished?
Aired 25 March 2013 • 45 min
The plan for Afghanistan was a robust democracy overseen by a well-trained army and police. But do the new security forces really have their hearts in the job?
9. Gas Leak!
Aired 1 April 2013 • 45 min
The coal seam gas industry promotes itself as a cleaner carbon-fuel alternative; but how do we know this is true? Until now much of the information used to back this claim has come from the industry itself. Four Corners reveals what really happened when two major companies applied to develop thousands of square kilometres of southern Queensland for coal seam gas.
10. A Gracious Gift
Aired 8 April 2013 • 45 min
This is a story Australians think they know: the gift of a donated organ that transforms the life of someone with a devastating illness. What we see here for the first time is the extraordinary journey families undergo whose loved ones are dying in hospital from a sudden, unexpected event.
11. The Spies Who Fooled the World
Aired 15 April 2013 • 45 min
How the West was duped by informants who claimed Saddam Hussein had WMD and how this phony intelligence was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
12. Who's Cheating Whom?
Aired 22 April 2013 • 45 min
Australians like to think their sports stars play fair but now it's alleged there's widespread drug taking and links with organised crime.
13. No Advantage
Aired 29 April 2013 • 45 min
We go inside Australia's offshore refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island. What you see will shock you. Protests, evidence of self-harm and testimony of suicide attempts.
14. The Surf Club
Aired 6 May 2013 • 45 min
The surf life saving movement is Australia's biggest volunteer organisation and it saves thousands of lives each year. But right now Surf Life Saving Australia is at a crossroads... Wendy Carlisle investigates.
15. Raising Adam Lanza
Aired 13 May 2013 • 45 min
An unflinching profile of the young man responsible for one of America's worst school massacres. Who was Adam Lanza - and what led him to kill 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary school last year?
16. The Big Gamble
Aired 20 May 2013 • 45 min
We take a revealing look at the world of sports betting and the man who's made himself the face of the industry - Tom Waterhouse.
17. Hacked!
Aired 27 May 2013 • 45 min
Andrew Fowler reveals that hackers, working from locations overseas, have targeted key Federal Government departments and major corporations in Australia.
18. The Hunt For Britain's Sex Gangs
Aired 3 June 2013 • 45 min
It was the police investigation that stunned Britain. Young men of Pakistani heritage grooming young girls with the intention of abusing them, gang raping them and then trading them with other groups of men. How could it happen in modern Britain?
19. The Hunting Party
Aired 10 June 2013 • 45 min
Hunting wild animals is a growth industry and now the pressure is on to get access to national parks. Who really benefits and who is at risk?
20. Escaping North Korea
Aired 13 June 2013 • 45 min
Two North Korean defectors are smuggled across borders by a human smuggler who promises them a safe escape. Will they survive the perilous 5,000 km journey to freedom?
21. Fashion Victims
Aired 25 June 2013 • 45 min
Australians love a bargain, but what's the real cost of cheap clothes from the sweat shops in Bangladesh? On 24th April this year more than a thousand people were killed when an eight storey building collapsed in the heart of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.
22. On the Brink
Aired 1 July 2013 • 45 min
Could you live on 35 dollars a day and pay for food, clothing, transport and other bills? That's what single unemployed people are entitled to on the Newstart allowance.
23. To the Bitter End
Aired 8 July 2013 • 45 min
Reporter Marian Wilkinson tells the turbulent story of Labor's bitter leadership struggle, the dramatic day that ended the term of Australia's first female Prime Minister and Labor's renewed ambition to win the next election.
24. Manhunt: The Boston Bombers
Aired 15 July 2013 • 45 min
Next on Four Corners, PBS' NOVA documentary producer, Miles O'Brien, looks at how the events unfolded on the day of the bombing and he tracks how a team of investigators used modern technology, combined with good old fashioned detective work, to break the case.
25. Chemical Time Bomb
Aired 22 July 2013 • 45 min
In the 1980s and 1990s governments across Australia outlawed the use of the herbicide 245T. The ban was introduced for one very good reason - 245T contains dioxin, a chemical impurity with the potential to seriously harm people who are exposed to it. But has the dioxin menace been tamed? Four Corners reveals evidence that this potentially deadly chemical compound may still be present in weed control products and that authorities do not routinely test for it.
26. In Search of Nathan Tinkler
Aired 29 July 2013 • 45 min
The rise and fall of Australia's youngest billionaire, Nathan Tinkler. How did he make so much money and where did it go?
27. Walking Wounded
Aired 1 August 2013 • 45 min
War photographer Giles Dooley lost both legs and an arm while on assignment in Afghanistan and returns to record the plight of Afghan civilians who've lost even more.
28. Cry Freedom: Mandela's Legacy
Aired 12 August 2013 • 45 min
Nelson Mandela promised a South Africa based on freedom and equality. But as the country's former leader lies in hospital critically ill, the nation he fought to create is slowly disintegrating. Violence is commonplace, unemployment is out of control and the ruling ANC Government is accused of rampant corruption.
29. Finding Mercy
Aired 19 August 2013 • 45 min
What do you do when your best friend is lost to you in a tide of violence and cruelty? Do you search across continents to find her? That is the story of filmmaker Robyn Paterson and her friend Mercy.
30. Buying Time
Aired 26 August 2013 • 45 min
There is not a person in the community that is not affected by cancer in some way. We go inside the hospitals and consulting rooms with Australians who are confronting the reality that the advanced cancer they have could kill them.
31. No Margin For Error
Aired 2 September 2013 • 45 min
Four Corners goes on the campaign trail, taking a fly-on-the-wall look at two seats that will be crucial in deciding who wins Government this time around.
32. In Google We Trust
Aired 9 September 2013 • 45 min
Australians are among the most technically connected in the world - but do we know where our data goes and how it's being used?
33. My Own Choice
Aired 16 September 2013 • 45 min
The story of a young man with a serious debilitating illness trying to find a way to legally end his own life.
34. Preying on Paradise
Aired 23 September 2013 • 45 min
A look at the renewed fight against corruption in Papua New Guinea. Will Australia help or hinder the battle? Marian Wilkinson reports.
35. Cover Up
Aired 30 September 2013 • 45 min
Two insiders blow the lid on a financial scandal that goes to the heart of one of Australia's most important and trusted institutions.
36. Terror in the Desert
Aired 7 October 2013 • 45 min
The harrowing story of an al Qaeda raid on a remote North African gas plant, told by the people who survived it.
37. No Accounting
Aired 14 October 2013 • 45 min
The Jawoyn people were held up as the model Indigenous community. What went wrong? Matthew Carney reports.
38. While They Were Sleeping
Aired 21 October 2013 • 45 min
It was an Australia Day paddock party for a group of 19-year-old school friends. But something went very wrong. By sunrise, two young people were dying. So why has no one been held to account?
39. Fire In The Wire
Aired 28 October 2013 • 45 min
We're told many bushfires are deliberately lit but close analysis suggests powerlines are the main culprits. What if many of our worst fires are in fact very much like industrial accidents which could have been prevented?
40. Supersizing India's Kids
Aired 4 November 2013 • 45 min
A large part of India is in danger of eating itself into an early grave. BBC This World discovers Indian families, obsessed with the glitter of the West, are indulging their children with fast, fatty foods.
41. JFK - The Lost Bullet
Aired 11 November 2013 • 45 min
Was John F. Kennedy the victim of conspiracy or a lone gunman? Can the third bullet fired at him that day in Dallas help answer that question?
42. Trading Misery
Aired 18 November 2013 • 45 min
In September a boat carrying 72 asylum seekers sank in stormy waters off the coast of Indonesia. Most of those onboard drowned, many of them children. Sarah Ferguson goes on the trail of the people smugglers who organised the vessel.
43. Palmer Drama
Aired 25 November 2013 • 45 min
Clive Palmer says he's bankrolled the Palmer United Party to give voice to millions of Australians who can't afford a lobbyist, but can we take him at his word?