THE PROTECTOR
As New South Wales’ top cop, Andrew Scipione has not just been the person in charge of 21,000 police officers and staff, he has also carried ultimate responsibility for the safety of the state’s seven and a half million citizens. He holds the largest policing job in Australia and one of the biggest in the world. Now Commissioner Scipione is about to hand in his badge, and even though he has spent 10 years as the boss and 37 years in total as a policeman, he knows his career may well be judged on just 17 hours, when 18 people were held hostage in the Lindt Café siege. But Andrew Scipione doesn’t shy away from that. He accepts, as he always has, that the buck stops with him.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Nick Greenaway
SAVING OUR SONS
Everyone who met 25-year-old Jake Fitzsimmons thought he was a great bloke. He was a local footy hero, had a decent job and plenty of friends. But Jake was keeping a heartbreaking secret from his mates, and one day late last year the depression he suffered became too much to bear, and he took his own life. Suicide by young men is rarely talked about so we have yet to properly comprehend its tragic scale. This week the CEO of Lifeline said Australia was in the middle of a “national suicide emergency” and that deaths were at a ten-year high. On average six men take their own lives every day, and for the sake of all the Jake Fitzsimmons in this country, we must do more to help and support those who are vulnerable.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producers: Sean Power, Jo Townsend
CRAVING MORE
k.d. lang is as famous for her individual style as she is for remarkable voice; the suited, androgynous performer with the signature, sultry sound. And as a vegetarian lesbian from Canadian cattle country, k.d. is also one of the most unlikely artists to make it in the mainstream music business. For her entire career she has tested boundaries, starting as a punk country singer before crossing over and taking on the world of pop. With multiple hit songs including the unforgettable Constant Craving, this self-deprecating star is also still amazed by her own success, even as she prepares for a much anticipated tour to Australia.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Ali Smith
MODERN FAMILY
It took teenager Corey Maison enormous courage to publicly declare she was trapped in the wrong body; that her mind didn’t match her anatomy. She was born a boy, but since early childhood has felt like a girl. She experienced traumatic and lonely years of confusion and frustration but now, 15-year-old Corey is physically transitioning into a young woman. And she no longer feels so alone because her mother Erica has now also identified as transgender and is becoming a man, Eric. In what is thought to be a world first, in the Maison household mother and son are on their way to being father and daughter. And as Tara Brown reports, the rest of this very modern family are supporting Corey and Eric all the way, even though there are now two fathers and no sons.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producers: Ali Smith, Michelle Tapper
AGE OF ANXIETY
It’s perfectly normal to have occasional moments where we feel nervous or worried, even a little fearful sometimes. But what about when those anxious feelings completely overwhelm and consume a person? It can be debilitating and in some cases life-threatening. In Australia today there is an epidemic of anxiety. It’s not understood and it’s not talked about, but this year a staggering two million people will suffer from this crippling condition. However, as Peter Overton discovers in this 60 MINUTES special report, there is hope: ground-breaking new research in Western Australia may hold the key to future treatments, while in Victoria one of man’s best friends is proving a real life-saver.
Reporter: Peter Overton
Producer: Jo Townsend
LESSONS OF HATE
In some schools it seems learning the three Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic, is no longer enough. There is now a fourth R: “radicalisation”. Education authorities are so worried about a rise in religious extremism among students that they have identified dozens of Australian schools as possible breeding grounds for junior jihadis. Equally worrying, earlier this month the principal and deputy of one high school in Sydney’s south-west were stood down after refusing to implement a government de-radicalisation initiative. It was a program designed to counter anti-social and extremist behaviour. The replacement principal is now promising to teach students core Aussie values. But is that enough in the battle for our kids’ hearts and minds?
Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producers: Steve Jackson, Ali Smith
LIFE SENTENCE
Danielle Laskie is an intelligent and kind healthcare worker from Melbourne who’s devoted to helping others. But is she too devoted? Maybe even a little bit naïve? Two years ago she started exchanging letters with a murderer serving a 63-year stretch in a US prison. Almost immediately the pen-pals became partners, and then last year they literally married at first sight inside one of America’s toughest jails. It’s probably not how most brides imagine their weddings will be, but Danielle is blissfully happy with her life sentence and she’s now campaigning to prove her husband’s innocence. Which begs the question: is the con conning his new bride?
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producers: Grace Tobin, Sean Power
A FORTUNATE LIFE
Peter Holmes à Court knows he has had – and is still having – a very fortunate life. As the son of Australia’s first billionaire, corporate raider Robert Holmes à Court, Peter was always destined for a career in the business world. For a while he did just that. In 2006, he and actor Russell Crowe famously took over one of our most revered footy clubs, the South Sydney Rabbitohs. But less well known is the personal cost Holmes à Court paid for helping steer Souths back to greatness. His marriage failed, as did his business partnership with Crowe – bitterly. So, finding himself at a crossroads in his life, Peter Holmes à Court decided to go back to where his story began, back to the spectacular wilds of Africa.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Nick Greenaway
EXTREME VETTING
Tragically this week the world once again experienced the barbarity of Islamic State extremism when homegrown terrorist Khalid Masood went on a deadly rampage on London’s Westminster Bridge and at the Houses of Parliament. Even though it occurred on the other side of the world, the atrocity is a reminder that Australia remains a target for terrorists. Unfortunately the London attack also raises critical questions about the Australian Government’s special humanitarian intake of 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq. Reports suggest up to 500 applicants have already been refused entry on security grounds. But just who is being allowed in? And how can we be confident that those who seek to do us harm don’t beat Australia’s version of extreme vetting? For the first time the government has agreed to lift a curtain of secrecy and showed Liam Bartlett just how the selection process works.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Howard Sacre
FAMILY BUSINESS
On Friday it was announced that after substantial negotiations, the Turnbull Government has finally agreed on a deal with crossbench Senators about childcare and welfare reforms. The proposals are complicated, and given the current distrust of all politicians, almost guaranteed to disappoint sections of the community. So why is providing the best for our children such a headache? Perhaps we need to look at what’s happening in Sweden, where there’s a completely different attitude. There, family business is the most important business, and it starts with a paid parental leave scheme that is so generous it’s hard to believe. And it’s not just for mums.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producer: Stefanie Sgroi
GREAT BARRIER GRIEF
The Great Barrier Reef has always been Australia’s great treasure. It’s not just beautiful, it’s also bountiful, and worth billions of dollars in tourism revenue. But now the largest living structure on the planet is becoming the largest dying structure. Vast amounts of coral are being killed off by rising ocean temperatures. One scientist, Dr Charlie Veron, has been warning of this looming catastrophe for years, but few have listened. However, as Tom Steinfort reports, now that it’s probably too late to do anything about this disaster, the world is finally taking notice.
Reporter: Tom Steinfort
Producer: Nick Greenaway
SAMANTHA KNIGHT – NEVER FORGOTTEN
If she was still alive, Samantha Knight would have turned 40 a few days ago. Instead she will always be remembered as the bright and beautiful nine-year-old girl from Bondi who one day in August 1986 simply vanished. Her disappearance led to one of the largest police investigations and searches in New South Wales history but her body has still not been found. In 2001, the notorious paedophile Michael Guider was charged with Samantha’s murder, and six months later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming he hadn’t meant to kill the little girl. Guider showed no remorse over the crime, but plenty of callousness – he said he simply couldn’t remember what he did with her body. Michael Guider is now 66 years old and, having spent the last 21 years in prison, convicted of more than 75 sexual offences against more than a dozen children, is about to become eligible for parole. In a 60 MINUTES exclusive, Ross Coulthart tracks down the key witness in the investigation: the man Guider confessed his crimes to. As well, and for the first time, another of Guider’s child victims speaks publicly about how he destroyed her life. Coulthart’s interviews provide a chilling insight into the mind of an evil paedophile, and powerful testimony to keep Michael Guider locked up.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Garry McNab
WAIST NOT, WANT NOT
Being beautiful can be very bad for your health, according to the 24-year-old French model Victoire Macon Dauxerre. Actually, she is now an ex-model. Her fashion faux pas was to write a bestselling book exposing the ugly secrets of her profession, and explaining how the demands of being a model very nearly killed her. Victoire tells Tara Brown about the inhumane treatment of young girls in a cutthroat business where careers are made or broken on the whim of agents, photographers and clothing designers. But when Tara asks one fashion industry icon for a response to Victoire’s claims, she ends up receiving a thin-skinned temper tantrum.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producers: Stefanie Sgroi, Eliza Berkery
BROKEN JUSTICE
Beth Staveley was a 68-year-old grandmother living happily on the Gold Coast with her partner of 20 years, Dennis Wakefield. But one day in June 2014, as she slept in her bed, Wakefield attacked and killed her. For police it seemed to be a tragic but straightforward domestic violence incident and Wakefield was charged with murder. However the case didn’t proceed to trial in the normal criminal system. Instead the matter was dealt with in a 30-minute hearing in Queensland’s little-known Mental Health Court. Dennis Wakefield, who had never been diagnosed with a mental illness, went from being a killer to a patient. Now, just three years on from the killing, Ross Coulthart discovers that Wakefield is back out in the community, living in an aged care facility. Alarmingly, neither the management of the home nor any of its other residents had a clue there was a killer living among them, until contacted by 60 MINUTES. Coulthart’s investigation raises serious questions about Queensland’s judicial and health systems, as he attempts to find out why the wellbeing of a violent killer has seemingly overtaken consideration for the safety of the rest of the community.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Laura Sparkes
VAPOUR TRAILS
For years and years, executives from Big Tobacco all over the world perpetrated the myth – always with a straight face and often on oath – that smoking was neither addictive nor harmful. But Tara Brown has just done an interview which will surely take your breath away. It’s with a current, senior scientist at British American Tobacco who finally admits what we have all known for a long time. Smoking kills. No, he doesn’t have a gun held to his head, but he does have an agenda. He wants to promote nicotine e-cigarettes, or vaping as it’s also called in Europe and America. And guess what? It is safer than tobacco … but does that mean it’s really safe?
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producers: Nick Greenaway, Eliza Berkery
PETITE TINA
Time flies when you’re having fun. Just ask Tina Arena. Many will find it hard to believe, but it’s 40 years since a confident, in-tune 10-year-old girl quickly nicknamed Tiny Tina began belting out pop songs on the TV show, Young Talent Time. And if you do the maths, that means this year Tina Arena is celebrating another significant milestone. But while we’ve always loved her and her music here in Australia, she’s been an even bigger hit in France.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Stefanie Sgroi
NEVER GIVE UP
When Anna Meares retired last year she did so as the greatest female track cyclist ever. It’s a wonderful achievement, but it would not have happened without her coach Gary West, the gruff taskmaster and brilliant tactician who engineered her success. Tragically, now Gary is in for the ride – and the battle – of his life. He has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a cruel condition with no cure. His body is rapidly failing him and doctors have said he may only have months to live. But Gary is up for the fight – and so is Anna Meares.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producer: Steve Jackson
WHO KILLED JOSH?
Last year 60 MINUTES reported the case of young aboriginal man Gene Gibson, convicted of killing 21-year-old Josh Warneke in Broome in 2010. Liam Bartlett’s investigation revealed a police case against Gibson which was so flawed and incompetent that even Josh’s mother, Ingrid Bishop, has been fighting to have her son’s killer freed. This week the West Australian Court of Appeal heard more arguments why this is one of most shocking miscarriages of justice in the state’s history.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Ali Smith
THE GREAT ESCAPE
Who hasn’t dreamt about quitting their job to live on a tropical island or travel around the country on a never ending holiday? Well, incredibly, more and more Australians are actually doing it, and it’s not just those with greying hair who are enjoying these nomadic adventures. Thousands of young families are giving up the rat race, packing up their lives in the city, and choosing the great escape. As Tara Brown found out, it’s a wonderful way of life, until it goes wrong.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Michelle Tapper
THE HORNET
If Jeff Horn wasn’t bullied and called names when he was a kid growing up in Queensland, it’s likely he’d still be Jeff who? But the schoolyard thugs taught him a great lesson: How to stand up for himself. And he’s done such a good job of it, Jeff Horn is now The Hornet, the World Boxing Organisation’s number two ranked welterweight fighter. This Brisbane school teacher is a rather improbable boxer though, brainy instead of brawly, respectful instead of raging. As Liam Bartlett reports, The Hornet will need every skill possible when he takes on his next opponent, the 11 time world champion, boxing legend, Manny Pacquiao.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producer: Steve Jackson
A TOOTH FOR AN EYE
Imagine suffering with partial or total blindness for years only to have your sight restored with, of all things, one of your own teeth. At first it sounds more like quackery than groundbreaking medicine. But it’s not. Doctors remove the patient’s tooth and implant it with a new lens into their eye. This extraordinary operation has been done overseas before, but until now, never in Australia. As Ross Coulthart reports, the procedure is as risky as it is ingenious but the reward, if successful, is life changing.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Alice Dalley
KELLY
What’s more impressive: selling a hundred million albums or having Beyoncé as your best friend? For Kelly Rowland it doesn’t matter because she can claim both, and a whole lot more. At 36 her life continues to be a blur of brilliance. A superstar solo singer who first made her name – alongside the Queen Bey – as a member of one of the world’s most successful girl groups, Destiny’s Child. Kelly is also now a judge on The Voice, where the wannabe stars, if they’re smart, will learn a lot from this very busy and driven woman.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producer: Phil Goyen
STATES OF HATE
This weekend in the United States President Donald Trump notches up his first 100 days in office. And many would argue that so far he has lived up to expectations. But the rise of Donald Trump has also seen a disturbing surge in the number of hate groups and hate crimes. There is now a genuine fear that we are witnessing a new era of racism-fuelled hatred, and that ignoring it and those who perpetrate hate will do nothing to stop it.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Phil Goyen
KEEP OUT
On Thursday the Prime Minister announced he was imposing tough new restrictions on gas exporters to solve our domestic energy crisis and reduce prices for Australian consumers. It’s a drastic step which Mr Turnbull says is needed to save the economy, and more particularly 65,000 jobs at immediate risk. But he also says state and territory governments must allow greater gas exploration to increase supply. That’s all well and good, unless it gives the gas producers a licence to do what they want. Last year 60 MINUTES reported how cattle farmer Kane Booth was forced off his land, his livelihood destroyed, when Queensland Gas Company (QGC) moved in to extract coal seam gas. Well Kane is still fighting, and QGC is still acting like a bully.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Laura Sparkes
THE MISSING
It’s an alarming and surprising statistic: every hour four Australians go missing. That equals 100 people a day, or 38,000 a year, who vanish. Thankfully most are found relatively quickly, but for the
families of those who aren’t the torment of not knowing what has happened to their loved one is devastating. Because of her own terrible experience when her 24-year-old brother disappeared, Loren O’Keeffe has decided we must do more to help the families of missing people.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Alice Dalley
ONE HELLUVA DAY
The 18th of February this year was one helluva day for Glenn Dickson. The 25-year-old spear fisherman was 40 kilometres off the Far North Queensland coast when he was attacked not once but twice by a three and a half metre bull shark. His right leg was severed and his femoral artery ruptured. Glenn couldn’t have been in a worse predicament. He was hours away from the medical help he desperately needed and as close to death as a human can get. So much went wrong that day for him, but as he tells Peter Stefanovic, so much more went right. His mates kept reviving him as they raced him to hospital. And he kept on thinking about his fiancée and precious young children. If ever it was needed, Glenn Dickson’s story proves how the power of love can be life-saving.
Reporter: Peter Stefanovic
Producer: Michelle Tapper
CROOK DEAL
Complaining about the greed of the big banks might be a national pastime, but often it’s completely justified. Take the National Australia Bank for example. On Thursday it announced a half-yearly cash profit of almost $3.3 billion. It’s an impressive result which shareholders have applauded. But to make such enormous amounts of money the bank needs people like Cathy and Terry Maloney – the North Queensland couple who were two of NAB’s most loyal and diligently honest customers. They ran a successful tourism business and prided themselves on never falling behind in their loan repayments. But as Ross Coulthart reports, the NAB’s treatment of the Maloneys is so diabolical it redefines the concept of bank bastardry. It started when the bank told the couple they must refinance their business, and then introduced them to – and insisted they work with – a convicted criminal who claimed he was a financial expert. The Maloneys didn’t stand a chance and they went from prosperity to poverty. But what is most alarming about this crook deal is that it could happen to anyone with a bank loan.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Grace Tobin
I really don’t see the pull of this story. It’s a pretty stock standard drug case. Alledged attempts to smuggle drugs, gets caught, crys innocent, the courts do the rest. Why is this case worth so much?
What on earth are the family going to say? ‘She would never harm anybody’ …‘She has always been a good girl’ …‘Cassie would never do that’
I’m not interested in what the family has to say, unless it’s to explain the apparent contradictions in her claims. I don’t think Nine should be handing over any money.
Big upcoming story will be the first Schapelle Corby interview. Who will be the million dollar bidder? She will need the cash to kickstart her life back in Australia.
THE KILLER STORM
All Australians are used to weathering frequent and ferocious thunderstorms, but the one that raced through country Victoria and slammed into Melbourne on November 21 last year was loaded with unexpected peril. Within a matter of minutes the entire city was left gasping for air in a mass asthma epidemic. Thousands were struck down, including many who weren’t even asthmatic. Emergency services were unable to cope with the number of calls for assistance and hospital emergency departments were overflowing with distressed patients. Tragically, nine people died that terrible day. What caused it was a highly unusual phenomenon called “Thunderstorm Asthma”, but this outbreak was the most severe and catastrophic the world has ever seen. In a special 60 Minutes investigation Tara Brown reveals that what is even more frightening is that it will happen again. The problem though is that no one knows where or when.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Garry McNab, Sean Power
HELTER SHELTER
Confused about the property market? Can’t afford to get in? Can’t afford to get out? Well you’re not alone. Surely, getting and keeping a roof over our heads should not be this hard. But the housing crisis continues to defy all attempts at a solution. It gets more shambolic and divisive by the day. The haves against the have-nots, rich versus poor, even old against young. This week on 60 Minutes, the Nine Network’s Finance Editor, Ross Greenwood, gets some blunt advice from those who should know the answers: Australia’s property billionaires.
Reporter: Ross Greenwood
Producer: Jo Townsend
IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
Like thousands of other young mums, newspaper journalist Elle Halliwell will celebrate her first Mother’s Day on Sunday. It’s a joyous time for Elle and her husband Nick, who welcomed a baby boy into their lives last December. But it’s happiness mixed with stress and fear because two days before Elle discovered she was pregnant she was told she had a rare and dangerous leukaemia. Back then she faced an awful dilemma: abort the baby and save her own life, or risk her life by delaying her cancer treatment until after the birth. It’s a decision that is still causing Elle heartache.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Stefanie Sgroi
