Four Corners - Season 54 / Year 2023

Former students from private schools in Sydney are grappling with a troubling question: What happens when freedom of religious expression strays into misinformation?

We have spoken to more than 30 former students from elite schools associated with the small but powerful branch of the Catholic Church known as Opus Dei.

The students have made disturbing claims about the messaging at the schools, which they say at times deviated from the curriculum and veered into misinformation.

Students say they were told that masturbation was mentally disordered behaviour, homosexuality would send them to hell, and girls were discouraged from getting the HPV cancer vaccine because it encouraged promiscuity.

For some, their schooling has left them with deep psychological scars.

The schools and the Opus Dei community have strong ties to the NSW Liberal Party. Premier Dominic Perrottet is an Old Boy.

Faced with questions from Four Corners about the schools' practices, Mr Perrottet has referred the allegations to an investigation by the NSW Educations Standards Authority.

But tonight on Four Corners former students warn that parents and others in the community are in the dark as to what is going on behind the school gates.

This week Four Corners reveals Australia's system of health regulation is allowing doctors who have groped, dated and even raped their patients to continue practising.

A six-month investigation into the medical complaints handling process has found hundreds of medical practitioners have been sanctioned by tribunals for sexual misconduct involving patients since 2010.

Many are still registered to work.

Reporter Emily Baker has forensically analysed over a decade's worth of healthcare complaints and uncovered a complex and unwieldy system struggling to protect the public from sexual predators.

The program follows several disturbing cases -- patients tell Baker harrowing stories of betrayal at the hands of those entrusted with their care – and the system that struggled to respond.

Baker investigates where the system is failing and asks how it could be improved.

In the race to curb catastrophic climate change, prominent Australian businesses have been enthusiastic customers of carbon credits. They've been offsetting their emissions by buying credits from companies promising to stop exploitative timber harvesting, whilst lifting locals out of poverty.

But reporter Stephen Long has found that there is a vast chasm between what is marketed and what is really happening on the ground.

In a month-long trip, the team travelled to some of the most isolated villages in Papua New Guinea. They uncovered environmental devastation in the very areas one company claimed to be protecting and indigenous landowners angry at unfulfilled promises.

Long asks, who will really benefit from the carbon trade?

The People's Fight, the inside story of the battle of the strategic city of Kherson. This Ukrainian victory halted Russian advances in the South and showed how an army of volunteers could defeat the might of the Russian army.

Monday's Four Corners report 'Fading Away' by Grace Tobin profiles the Australian mums fighting to keep their children alive.

For months reporter Grace Tobin and the team followed families as they struggled to get the right treatment for life-threatening eating disorders.

With more than one million Australians estimated to be living with an eating disorder at any time, they are also one of the deadliest of all mental illnesses.

The program explores the complexities of the illness and reveals a health system appallingly underprepared to deal with this crisis.

For 23-year-old Sara, who compares her eating disorder to a "monster", the solution is not as simple as just eating.

"It's so much more than just the actual food. For me, when I have food, there's so much guilt and shame and anxiety around it. That doesn't just go away if you eat the food," Sara says.

Her mother Jenny lives in fear, "I come home thinking, ‘Is she going to be collapsed on the floor or is she going to be okay?' ... She could die from it."

Another mother, Faye lost her daughter Caitlin after a 16-year battle with the disease. "She gave up on the system. The system is broken. It's so broken," she tells Four Corners.

On Four Corners this week we investigate how the Perth Mint may have been used to move millions of dollars around the world.

The Perth Mint, which is owned by the WA government, sells $20 billion of gold annually and is one of the world's biggest gold refiners. This makes it a very large business and one that should be acutely aware of its obligations to comply with Australia's anti-money laundering laws.

We uncover major holes in its money laundering defences and how the historic institution has been singled out by law enforcement authorities.

There's a notorious bikie who has bought gold with no background checks, and we put the WA Premier on the spot. We also delve into how clients of a tax haven bank were able to buy $25 million worth of precious metals from the Perth Mint.

The gambling industry has long been one of the most powerful interest groups in Australia.

Yet you might not have even heard of one of its main lobby groups — Clubs NSW. It represents the interests of over 1,000 clubs and their more than 64,000 poker machines.

We've been investigating the power this lobby group has over governments and regulators, both state and federal.

In our investigation you'll hear from people with first-hand knowledge of how the group operates, who are speaking out for the first time.

There's a former industry insider blowing the whistle on the organisation's culture; and a Liberal party gambling minister who was targeted by the group – and was ultimately forced out of the job.

How to fix problem gambling and money laundering associated with poker machines has become a hot topic at this month's NSW election.

Veteran campaigners for reform believe it's a watershed moment – the biggest ever test of ClubsNSW's power and influence, that could have ramifications across Australia and even globally.

This week on Four Corners, British filmmaker Ben Zand takes us into the dark world of Incels – a radical online subculture of young men who rage against women for supposedly denying them sex and then turn that rage into fantasies about horrific violence.

Zand uncovers the shockingly violent content that is being shared online and talks to the men behind it, in an effort to understand the Incel mentality that has in part lead to hate crimes and in some cases mass murders.

The film also explores the intersection between loneliness and young men's vulnerability to online radicalisation – a practice known as black pilling. This culminates when Zand accompanies one young man to a bar to meet and talk to a woman for the very first time.

More than a hundred agents and property professionals reveal the ways in which their profession manipulates and misleads buyers as well as sellers in the pursuit of making a deal.

As part of a crowdsourced investigation into the sector, reporter Paul Farrell and the team gain access to those in the know and ask them to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding how they make their money.

The revelations are stunning and highlight limits to regulation, as well as the pitfalls to look out for.

In this episode of Four Corners "Gaming The Games", an investigation by Hagar Cohen, uncovers a scandal that goes to the heart of the Paralympic Games.

The Paralympics have become the world's third biggest sporting event, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue and sponsorships.

Reporter Hagar Cohen speaks to former athletes and high-ranking officials who tell her the system that's meant to ensure a level playing field for Paralympians, is flawed and easily manipulated.

The insiders describe a culture where classification rules are regularly bent and broken, with few repercussions.

They fear that without substantial reform, athletes who follow the rules will continue to be robbed of the chance to compete and win.

Japan's secret sex scandal. A music executive with a long history of allegations of sexual abuse made by boys in his talent agency. We examine the suffocating reality of being a J-pop idol and the media cover up over decades.

Australia is under cyber-attack and the problem is not going away – it's getting worse.

Over the last three months I've explored the shadowy world of the criminal syndicates behind this.

It's taken me from Australia to Ukraine — and back again.

On that journey I've been stunned by how well organised – and corporatised – these gangs are. Some even have HR departments and negotiating teams.

Many are based in Russia, where they clearly receive the protection of powerful people in the regime.

Our Four Corners team has looked at two of Russia's crime gangs, Revil and Conti.

While technically they have closed down, it's clear that hackers from groups like this often re-emerge in other guises. Their malicious software – known as malware – is also used by other criminals.

I spent time inside the cyber nerve centre in Ukraine – where they warned that because of Australia's support for the country, we can expect an increase in attacks from Russia's gangs.

Preparing this report, I was stunned by the damage these attacks are causing. The Federal Government's own figures estimate 23 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses that are hacked are paying ransoms.

What can be done to stop the hackers?

Fox News has abruptly agreed to pay more than $AU1 billion over allegations it promoted misinformation about the 2020 US election.

It's one of the highest publicly known defamation settlements in US history.

The settlement with election technology company Dominion Voting Systems was the latest twist in an extraordinary case that has exposed the inner workings of the powerful Murdoch-owned conservative news network. Dominion, in addition to the huge payout, heard a statement from Fox News that "certain claims" it made about the company were not true.

This case is just one of many launched against Fox and its friends.

Two years ago, reporter Sarah Ferguson investigated how Rupert Murdoch's Fox News promoted Donald Trump's propaganda and helped destabilise democracy in America.

In light of the Dominion settlement, this week 4Corners will re-air that special investigation (updated), including the next big case against Fox brought by a second voting-machine company.

The United States, for only the second time ever, is prepared to share its nuclear submarine technology. And it will be sharing it with us.

In framing last month's AUKUS announcement this way, the question of "should we go nuclear?" has largely been ignored.

On this week's episode of Four Corners, we examine the price of pursuing this nuclear dream — how it will cost up to $32 million a day for the next three decades, require a near-tripling of an already stretched submarine corps and limit Defence's ability to produce or buy other critical military items.

But most of all we investigate how the navy is struggling to keep its current fleet of ageing subs in the water.

We reveal it had only one battle-ready submarine from its fleet of six at the start of this year.

This was due to floods, a fire and maintenance delays, which are set to become even more common as the fleet enters its fourth decade of service.

If we are finding it difficult to keep these conventional submarines in the water, can we really go nuclear?

The new reality of artificial life. As tech companies race to dominate the artificial intelligence market, experts warn we're not prepared for what happens next. Grace Tobin investigates the misuse and abuse of generative AI.

It's long been dangerous for ordinary Russians to speak up against Vladimir Putin's regime, but since the invasion of Ukraine it's become riskier than ever.

This week Four Corners goes deep inside Russia to meet the citizens who have chosen to stay after thousands of others have fled. Some vocally oppose the war, others have remained silent, and some support the government.

The filmmakers meet a group of young graffiti artists who create art mocking the government's pro-war propaganda, before one of their members is arrested.

They follow the members of a small, independent YouTube channel as they travel the country to give voice to the views of ordinary Russians, after other independent media outlets were forced to close.

And a local politician is forced to make the ultimate choice after a video of her accusing the Russian government of war crimes during a council meeting goes viral.

When authorities decide to press charges, she must decide: should she face criminal conviction or flee the country?

We lift the lid on the shadowy underworld of Australia's cocaine supply chain, with unprecedented access to traffickers, importers, street dealers and high-ranking cartel operatives.

Five years after the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, a fierce new battleground is emerging as survivors turn to the courts seeking compensation from the institutions they say should have kept them safe.

In my own journalism, I followed closely over many years the work of the royal commission, and there was great hope when it made its final recommendations — many of which were adopted by parliaments — that a new and fairer legal landscape would emerge for survivors.

But despite those reforms designed to ease the path to justice, for many survivors, getting proper civil compensation when they finally pluck up the courage to come forward is now more difficult than ever.

In this week's Four Corners, we go behind the scenes to reveal the extraordinary legal tactics being used to have claims thrown out of court and compensation payments cut.

We talk to victims whose cases have been thwarted by permanent stays — a legal mechanism that's only granted by courts in exceptional circumstances, when a case is considered so oppressively unfair to one party that it's an abuse of process.

If granted, it effectively puts an end to proceedings.

The lawyers we spoke to say they're now being used or threatened in almost all cases where an abuser has died or has dementia. And shockingly, in at least one case, where the convicted pedophile is very much alive, in jail and willing to give evidence that the institution should have done more to stop him.

The survivor of that perpetrator is now facing bankruptcy, after the court awarded costs against him.

We meet another survivor who sued the church for childhood abuse perpetrated by a priest, only for the institution to turn around and cross-claim against his aunt because, it argued, it should have been "reasonably foreseeable" that it was unwise to leave the boy alone with the priest.

Meanwhile, another institution is threatening to seek a stay that would prevent an Aboriginal woman from seeking compensation through the courts because her alleged perpetrator — who was charged with the abuse of 40 children — died six months before his criminal trial.

A narrow stretch of water is all that separates the People's Republic of China, ruled by the Communist Party, from Taiwan, Asia's most successful democracy.

The small island is in dire straits, stuck in the middle of a struggle between two nuclear powers — China and the United States. There are real fears it will soon become the centre of the next major global conflict.

While China insists Taiwan must re-unify with the motherland, Taiwan's president says the island must maintain its freedom and democracy.

This week's episode of Four Corners goes inside the fight to tell a story that could have ramifications for us all.

We meet young people training in urban warfare who are bracing for more cyber-attacks, disinformation and the possibility of an all-out battle.

A pro-Beijing campaigner and a former gang leader explains why they want reunification and shares footage of his party members battling pro-independence students.

And we tackle the question: what next for Taiwan?

At first glance, the man sitting in a folding chair on the sidelines of a soccer field in Melbourne's suburbs could be just another supporter of South Springvale Football Club.

You'd be forgiven for not having heard of the team. They play in the fifth tier of Victoria's state competition.

But the man wasn't one of South Springvale's loyal local fans. He was a data scout - working for an international company that generated almost $1.2 billion in revenue last year.

Because of the man's live updates, several international bookmakers were offering people the chance to bet on this amateur game in real-time.

The club, and players, had no idea.

Not only does the sport's governing body Football Australia allow data scouts to be on the sidelines of games like this, but it also receives a cut of any domestic bets that are placed.

This is Australian sport in 2023.

I've spent the past six months investigating how the games we love have become deeply entwined with gambling.

I found secret deals between the biggest sporting codes and global betting giants and explored how the influence of gambling infiltrates local community sports.

Many clubs, players and fans I spoke to say they've had enough. Is a change coming?

What did it take to lure the two of us back to our old stomping ground? A cracking expose on Australia's greatest untold spy story.

It was only six years ago in 2017 that ASIO's Official History confirmed our spy agency had been penetrated by the KGB during the Cold War. But just what happened and who betrayed Australia has been a closely guarded secret. Until now.

In this week's Four Corners, we reveal not just the full extent of this breathtaking treachery but also the identity of the ASIO officer who became a KGB mole.

At the time, he was a senior manager with top secret clearance who sold out his colleagues and his country for cash payments from the Russians. He was considered one of the KGB's most valuable western intelligence assets during the Cold War.

For the first time, former colleagues also speak about the shock and trauma of realising they had a traitor inside their office.

Because of his access to critical secrets shared among the Five Eyes intelligence partnership, the mole's actions also jeopardised Australia's intelligence alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom.

It's a genuine spy thriller with hidden compartments in diplomatic cars, exercise groups acting as diversions at Sydney's Bondi Beach and so-called 'dead drops' of classified documents at night in Centennial Park.

Inside Australia's Biggest Tax Scam. Paul Farrell investigates the Plutus Payroll scheme: a vast conspiracy to defraud more than $100 million from Australian taxpayers, revealing how it was set up and how it was brought down.

This week Four Corners investigates his decades-long clashes with American presidents.

The documentary from Frontline filmmaker Michael Kirk and his award-winning team reveals how the miscalculations and missteps of multiple American presidents over two decades paved the way for Putin's attack on Ukraine.

This is the story as seen through the eyes of people who were in the room. It draws on in-depth conversations with insiders from five U.S. presidential administrations, former U.S. intelligence leaders, diplomats, Russian politicians, authors and journalists.

Putin and the Presidents traces how, prior to launching the war on Ukraine, Putin tested the waters by provoking and defying American presidents for 20 years — cyberattacking Estonia, invading Georgia, seizing Crimea, and interfering in a U.S. presidential election.

The report provides unique insight into the icy relationship between Putin and current U.S. President Joe Biden, and into the evolution of the Russian leader's grievances with the U.S. and the West.

Patricia Karvelas here, I usually host RN Breakfast but for the last few months I've also been working on a special episode of Four Corners on a debate that has become increasingly polarising and combative.

Medical transitions for young people who are transgender have galvanised campaigns around the world, but we wanted to explore what is happening in Australia's health system.

The gender "affirmation" model of care for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria – offering a path to medical interventions — is under scrutiny, review and change around the world.

From Western Europe to the United States there have been changes to restrict access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

At the heart of the debate is whether these medical interventions should be given to young people.

The fight is now boiling over in Australia. It's playing out dramatically at Westmead children's hospital in Sydney.

Over the last few months we have spoken to many insiders who have told us that the dispute over care is affecting their ability to help children languishing on their waiting list.

We also wanted to hear from the critics of the affirmation model. Some argue that with the passage of time and therapy, gender issues will resolve. This approach is strongly refuted by most gender doctors.

At the center of all this though are families desperate to do what's right for their distressed children.

We've spoken to young people who are just starting the process that can lead to transitioning.

Their accounts are powerful because for them it is not an academic abstract debate – it is their experience and their story.

Inside the broken business of building. Australia has the highest rate of construction insolvencies in a decade. We examine the supply chain pressures, slim profit margins and failure in regulation as some flout the law.

From the Ukrainian frontlines to the mines of the Central African Republic, this week's Four Corners lifts the veil on Putin's private army – The Wagner Group.

In this independent French television investigation, former senior Wagner insiders speak out about what they saw in the line of duty.

The film traces the group, from its origins in Ukraine, to its clandestine operations in Syria, and its reign of terror across Africa where victims tell of rape, torture and massacres.

It also follows the rise and fall of the group's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin who recently dared to challenge Putin's power by marching on Moscow with thousands of his troops.

Undercover cameras go inside Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein's factories for the first time.

This is a story that Angus Grigg has wanted to tell for five years.

It's got all the elements – money, insiders and power – but until recently, the rise of the consulting giants and how they've infiltrated government was confined to the business pages.

Then the PwC tax scandal happened.

This week on Four Corners, we investigate PwC's equally large and consequential rivals, and their huge influence in Canberra.

Top of our list is KPMG, which has billed the Department of Defence a staggering $1.3 billion over the past five years.

Whistleblowers tell us how it repeatedly over-charged the department – and you the taxpayer – for work never completed, and even invoiced for a consultant who wasn't on a project.

And we don't stop there.

"Breaking the Cycle", reported by: Grace Tobin....

I've never met anyone like the women in this week's story.

They're young, pregnant and addicted.

One sits beside me on a bed, her hand resting on her belly as she describes her use of methamphetamines and cannabis.

"I never wanted to be a pregnant drug user," she says.

It's a moment I can't forget.

Amid Australia's decade-long battle with ice, thousands of babies are born each year exposed to their mother's drug use.

These women let us into their lives as they desperately try to get help for themselves and their unborn children.

Four Corners reveals a system largely unwilling to deal with the health crisis — but there is some hope.

The AFL is the only major sporting code in the world that hasn't had a single elite male player publicly identify as gay. Louise Milligan investigates the AFL's culture and asks what has created this silence?

Antidepressants have helped many treat anxiety and depression but the physical and mental side effects can be wide-ranging - from headaches, brain fog, loss of sexual function and suicidal thoughts - and are often downplayed.

Despite the Taliban's public promises of change, we expose the reality of life for women in Afghanistan. We accompany an underground network of female activists on dangerous missions to rescue women hunted by the Taliban.

Renegotiating Australia's democracy. Dan Bourchier travels the country talking to people about what the referendum means to them. The Voice debate has been unsettling and confusing, so what does self-determination look like?

How the NDIS fails to protect our most vulnerable. Anne Connolly and the Four Corners team expose criminals, opportunists and registered providers who have been busted exploiting loopholes to overcharge and defraud the NDIS.

Undercover operatives and secret informants have been crucial in the fight against organised crime. But what happens to these people who risk their lives once the operations have finished and the criminals are behind bars?

Climate, protest and the fight for the future. Reporter Hagar Cohen takes you deep inside the battle between climate activists, the government and energy companies.

Monday's Four Corners "Trapped" by Alexandra Blucher reveals allegations of the torture and mistreatment of people living with disabilities and mental illness who are locked up indefinitely by the state.

Around Australia an estimated 700 people who have been charged, but not convicted, of crimes are being detained in the forensic system.

In some of the most extreme cases, they're locked up for years in solitary confinement with no release date.

Some have been determined too great a risk to live in the community because of their history of violence and complex behaviour.

The United Nations has condemned this treatment, and along with the Disability Royal Commission, has called for an end to their indefinite detention.

Reporter Alexandra Blucher has gained unprecedented access to forensic patients and their families. In this program she enters a facility to speak to one man who's spent more than two decades in custody.

He remains indefinitely detained.

The program also features another patient who's spent 11 years secluded in a high-security unit with only a caged outdoor area, sometimes pitching a tent to obscure himself from the constant CCTV surveillance.

Blucher exposes the extent of harm that can be done to patients by forcing them to live in these conditions – in some cases making them more dangerous.

"Trapped" is an unflinching portrait of the forensic system and the dilemma we face in balancing the safety of the community and the basic human rights of people living with a disability.

The nation-building project that went horribly wrong. Snowy Hydro 2.0 was sold as a low-carbon future by the end of 2024. Instead, the pumped hydro project is now five years behind schedule and forecast to hit $12 billion.

Private security policing the public. In Darwin, private security firms hired by the NT Government patrol the streets doing work usually done by the police. We examine is there adequate training, accountability and oversight?

Few people have become as popular, influential, and seemingly wealthy in such a short space of time as the influencer Andrew Tate.

Last year, he was arrested in Romania accused of rape and of grooming women into working for him as online sex workers. He has denied the allegations.

The world is now focused on his upcoming trial, but how did Tate become so infamous in such a short space of time?

This week, in a BBC production, Four Corners delves into the perplexing rise of a once-obscure figure who leveraged bombastic online courses to become a global sensation.

Investigative journalist Matt Shea reveals the dark misogynist underbelly of Tate's network and his use of affiliate marketing to teach men how to manipulate and coerce women.

Through disturbing chat logs leaked from Tate's secret society, the War Room, Shea exposes how members are being taught to groom women into online sex work.