GREAT WHITE HOPE
The mantra of marine experts is that the risk of being taken by a shark while swimming, surfing or diving is so miniscule it’s not even worth thinking about. But it seems lately the rate of shark attacks has been increasing dramatically. Every new incident, every tragic death or horrific injury, invariably leads to heated debate about the need to cull sharks so humans can be safe in the water. On 60 MINUTES, a breakthrough which could save man and beast – new technology whose makers are confident will keep us apart. But as Ross Coulthart reports, there’s only one way to find out if it really works and that involves getting very close to very large sharks.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Nick Greenaway
NOT SO GREAT BRITAIN
When Britain voted to leave the European Union just days ago the rest of the world was caught completely unaware. Almost immediately, however, the decision assumed the proportions of an ugly divorce as politicians on both sides of the English Channel began bickering about the logistics of how and when to sever ties. Brexit has also created disturbing divisions in England, especially over immigration policy, but as Liz Hayes reports from London, there is one man who could not be happier. Nigel Farage is the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party and the key architect of the split from Europe. He’s spent the last 17 years working towards this very moment.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Steven Burling
I, ROBOT
Advances in technology mean scientists and engineers have been able to create robots that literally have minds of their own. Liz Hayes meets Sophia, Herb and Baxter, and explains how they’re making our lives easier. These robots work non-stop and never whinge. But perhaps there is too much of a good thing because of a growing risk that these bundles of technological wizardry are becoming too smart for their – and our – own good.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Phil Goyen
ELECTION 2016: THE RESULTS
Charles Wooley reports the latest results from Election 2016, the winners and losers, and assesses where Australia is headed now.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Ali Smith
GOING FOR BROKE
In the brutal assessments of the election disaster for Malcolm Turnbull, many experts said the Coalition’s proposed changes to the superannuation system cost it desperately needed votes. The Prime Minister and Treasurer had claimed super was becoming a tax rort for the wealthy, and there wasn’t enough benefit for low and middle-income families. But fiddling with the retirement funds of any Australians is sure to raise tempers. And there’s an even bigger problem. Thanks to the new rules, and because we’re all living longer, most retirees will run out of money in their 70s and 80s, just when they need it most. In this special report for 60 MINUTES, the Nine Network Finance Editor, Ross Greenwood, questions the government’s motives in making the changes and says by going for broke, it risks making superannuation even more confusing for all Australians.
Reporter: Ross Greenwood
Producer: Jo Townsend
REBOOT OF THE NERDS
There was a time not so long ago when the geeks at school suffered serious teasing. But these days it’s all changed. Now many students aspire to be nerds. They’re honing their skills in digital technology because they know in the very near future that’s where the important careers – and big money – will be found. In fact almost every job will soon require a substantial degree of digital expertise, including computer programming. Brisbane schoolboy Taj Pabari is a great example of what’s needed and what can be achieved. At just 16, he’s already a businessman, with his own tech company, and an international team working towards a big future.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Ali Smith
LOOK WHO’S TALKING
A few weeks ago at the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States a three-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure. A huge silverback appeared to rescue him, but then started to toy with him like a rag doll. Eventually zookeepers shot the animal. It was distressing but they said it was the only way to save the child because they didn’t know the gorilla’s intentions. But what if humans and animals could talk? Well, in another part of the United States a gorilla named Koko has learnt to communicate. It has taken over 40 years of study, but psychologist Penny Patterson is certain Koko now knows language and can create sentences to express feelings and ideas. And as Ross Coulthart reports, Koko the gorilla just might be the most intriguing interview he’s ever done.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Gareth Harvey
REMEMBERING VICTOR
This week marks 25 years since we lost a great Australian. Victor Chang, one of the world’s finest heart surgeons and transplantation pioneers, was senselessly gunned down in a Sydney street, the victim of a botched extortion attempt. But Dr Chang’s extraordinary legacy means lives continue to be saved around Australia.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Alice Dalley
An Australian “child recovery” agent at the centre of a botched plot to kidnap a child for the 60 Minutes program has been granted bail by a Lebanese court.
Adam Whittington’s has been released on bail worth $US20,000 ($26,000) said his Lebanese lawyer Joe Karam.
PARADISE LOST
If you’re thinking of holidaying in Samoa, you’d be wise to think again. The brochures show an idyllic South Pacific paradise and promise a welcome as warm as the sun. But that can never be the truth while a sadistic thug named Lauititi Tualima lives there. He’s Samoa’s most dangerous criminal. Remarkably he spends most of his time in prison, but security there is such a joke, it’s no deterrent to Tualima’s life of extreme violence. Australian tourists Angie Jackson and Tommy Williams found themselves prey to this man and they’re very lucky to still be alive.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Garry McNab, Sean Power
THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA
The United States of America right now feels more like the divided states of America. The recent shootings of black Americans by police officers has sparked nationwide protests, led to a mass murder and left many wondering if the country’s racial divisions are deeper than they’ve ever been. This week Michael Usher travelled to some of America’s most racially segregated communities and discovered a simmering underbelly of anger and resentment that’s very close to erupting into open war.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producer: Phil Goyen
ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS
For devotees, it’s simply “Absolutely Fabulous” news. Two of the most acerbically-written characters ever created for the small screen have been given the Hollywood treatment. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are back playing the somewhat hopeless, often sozzled, but always funny Edina and Patsy, in the Ab Fab feature film. The original television series ran for three years in the early 1990s, and their outrageously bad behaviour made the pair famous all over the world. So, when Liz Hayes was summoned to London for an audience with Jennifer and Joanna, there was no way she was going to refuse.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Steven Burling
TERROR IN NICE
Karl Stefanovic will report the latest news from the Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice, France.
Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producers: Nick Greenaway, Grace Tobin
[quote=“TV.Cynic, post:174, topic:117”]
PARADISE LOST…Reporter: Liam Bartlett
[/quote] It is good to see Liam Bartlett has become a regular guest reporter as of late, he was a great 60 Minutes reporter.
[quote=“TV.Cynic, post:172, topic:117”]
60 Minutes: ‘Child recovery’ expert Adam Whittington, released on bail[/quote]
His mother Georgina Whittington on The Project said they hadn’t heard from Channel 9 in the 100 days he’s been in jail…until today when they asked for an interview. She ended it by saying “How dare they?”
Tara Brown returns to the show next week, in her first report since the Lebanon child recovery disaster, according to a promo aired tonight. She will report on the 2014 fire in Rozelle in Sydney, in which shopkeeper Adeel Khan was convicted of the murder of Chris Noble, and manslaughter of Bianka O’Brien and her son Jude.
THE KILLER DOWNSTAIRS
Sometimes greed is so consuming it blocks out all human reasoning and logic. How else can anyone explain Adeel Khan’s actions? Two years ago, Khan, 46, deliberately blew up his Sydney convenience store so he could claim $225,000 in insurance. The blast was so destructive the two-storey building crumbled to the ground and three innocent lives, including an 11-month-old baby, were lost. That Adeel Khan thought he could get away with the crime is as outrageous as the act itself, and next week this evil man will be sentenced for murder, manslaughter and arson. But no amount of prison time will be long enough for the grieving families of those he killed.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Rebecca Le Tourneau
RUNNING MATES
It should have been a triumphant week for Donald Trump, but despite being formally nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate to take on Hillary Clinton in the US Presidential race, the New York billionaire faced some serious embarrassment. As a result, instead of being a showpiece of conservative politics, the 2016 Republican National Convention will more likely be remembered for chaos and farce. To try to help re-unite the party, Trump announced that the Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, would be his Vice-President if he made it to the White House. It was considered a smart and safe choice until they sat down for an extraordinary interview with American 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl. It’s a revealing insight into what life might be like with a President called Trump.
Reporter: Lesley Stahl (CBS 60 MINUTES)
Producers: Richard Bonin and Ruth Streeter
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
That memorable tourist slogan “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is particularly apt for Human Nature. You remember Human Nature? The Australian boy band of the 1990s, four high school mates with a passion for pop harmonies. Well, the boys became men, and in 2009 Toby Allen, Phil Burton and brothers, Andrew and Mike Tierney, decided to chance their luck in the toughest entertainment town in the world, Las Vegas. For their first show they sold eight tickets, but now, seven years on, they sell out every performance, and by staying in Vegas, Human Nature are transforming “sin city” into “sing city”.
Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producer: Gareth Harvey
Beirut: A freed Adam Whittington has left Lebanon nearly four months after first being detained for plotting the abduction of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner’s two children from Lebanon and warned the Nine Network “the truth is coming out.”
And in comments ominous for the Nine Network, Whittington said he would be telling his side of the story in full.
“Finally, finally the the truth is coming out, very soon, don’t worry about that.”
I reckon The Project will cover his story if it’s going to be told/broadcast, that’s if Sunday Night don’t throw wads of cash at him to talk - which they probably will.
I reckon that Seven will most likely pay big bucks for the rights to “Adam Whittington: The Real Story” for Sunday Night because we all know how Seven and Nine absolutely hate each other and will do anything to kick a rival while it’s down…
MH370: SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Aviation experts frequently remind us that flying on modern jet planes is the safest form of transport. However those assertions are meaningless while the fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 remains unknown. It’s more than two years since the Boeing 777 disappeared off the face of the earth. An exhaustive and expensive search in the southern Indian Ocean has failed to turn up anything. It’s due to end soon, which has further distressed the grieving families of the 239 passengers and crew who are presumed dead. Frustration at the lack of clues has led to significant reassessment about MH370, and as Ross Coulthart discovers in this 60 Minutes investigation, there’s now growing evidence that authorities have been ignoring more credible theories about what might have brought the jet down.
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Gareth Harvey
MIND BOGGLING
Depending on your memory, you may or may not recall a story 60 Minutes made five years ago about a small group of extraordinary people who can remember every detail of their lives, stretching back decades. They can remember where they were and what they did on any particular day in any particular year. Scientists are intrigued by this rare ability and hope a better understanding of it might one day lead to cures for sufferers of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. Since the original story went to air, the number of people diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory has grown from 10 to 60 – and now includes the first Australian. Twenty-six-year-old Becky Sharrock’s mind retains so much detailed information it almost defies belief; she can even recite every word of every Harry Potter book. But while the idea of a super memory might sound appealing, it can also be a curse.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Grace Tobin
THE MAN WHO SAW EVERYTHING
While you may not be familiar with his name, you will certainly know Nick Lee’s work, because if you’ve watched 60 Minutes over the years, you’ve watched his spectacular vision. Nick is a brilliant cameraman, and was one of the first people employed on the show way back in the late 1970s. For the next 30 years Nick filmed the very best and the very worst of this world. He loved his job but when a sudden illness forced him into early retirement Nick put down his camera and started writing about his great adventures. He’s now released his memoir, a revealing, sometimes too revealing look at life on the road with 60 Minutes.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
UNWANTED
If you think America is the heart of modern civilisation, this story will surely change your mind. There, a trade in unwanted children exists and the way they do it is distressing. It’s known as “re-homing”, and when parents decide they no longer want their adopted child, they simply advertise them on websites to lure prospective new parents. It’s as straightforward as getting rid of an old fridge on eBay. There is no vetting or court orders required and the children can be handed over to anyone. Not surprisingly, the consequences for these disposable kids are often disastrous.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Laura Sparkes
PREDATOR
When Allison Langdon was asked to report a story about leopard seals in Antarctica, she had no idea it would turn out to be her toughest assignment ever. Just getting to the frozen continent was an ordeal: a three day journey in a tiny yacht across the Drake Passage, the most treacherous stretch of water in the world. But the sea sickness was quickly forgotten when she saw the beauty of the last true wilderness on the planet, although it meant the most dangerous part of her story was about to begin - diving into the freezing waters of Antarctica and swimming with one of the most vicious and unpredictable predators of the sea, the leopard seal.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producer: Nick Greenaway
THE MISSING
In February 2013 Lorrin Whitehead, a mother of five beautiful children, left her home in Bannockburn, Victoria and went to the local supermarket. She hasn’t been seen since. There are no suspicious circumstances about Lorrin’s disappearance and no clues about what might have happened or where she might be. Her 23 year old daughter, Amelia is leading the campaign to find her mum, and has also taken charge of her four little brothers and sisters. But this Missing Person’s Week, a special appeal for information in the hope Lorrin might come home to celebrate her daughter’s wedding day.
Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Alice Dalley
Jeez, the irony in Tara’s story this week. I dunno about anyone else, but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with me about that particular story and to a lesser extent her being back reporting.
