Season 1998

E1. Shaheed

May 1, 1998 · 60m

Ex Tele-Images, France: This report is about the young Palestinian patriots, Shaheeds, who turn themselves into human bombs for the promise of a passport to heaven for them and their families. The program also sheds light on the motives and the psychology of these young men and interviews some who have failed as well as their families. Summer Dispatches. Writer/Director: Dan Setton. Narrator: Debbie Richards. Presenter: Liz Jackson.

E2. An Inside Job

Feb 9, 1998 · 60m

It's Christmas 1996, in Melbourne. As an evening's revelry ends, all's quiet at 412 St Kilda Road -- headquarters of Victoria's elite police crime squads. But inside, an event is unfolding that will shatter the illusion that the forces of law and order are in control.

E3. Terminal Folly

Mar 2, 1998 · 60m

Passenger movements through Sydney's Kingsford Smith airport have grown nearly tenfold in the past 30 years. The need for a second airport is overwhelming but the future of this critical national infrastructure is locked in stalemate.

E4. Webb of Intrigue

Mar 9, 1998 · 60m

Webb Dock - in Melbourne's industrial heartland. For most of us it would have remained an unknown backwater, but now it will be remembered as a milestone in our tortured industrial relations history.

E5. Soeharto: The End Game

Mar 16, 1998 · 60m

For more than 30 years President Soeharto has delivered to his country, economic growth. Now, as he begins his seventh term in office, Indonesia hovers on the brink of economic collapse. Liz Jackson visits Indonesia during the last days and hours of the reign of President Soeharto and finds a region in turmoil. Riots rocked Jakarta and students occupied the National Parliament buildings; Jackson recorded the moments leading up to the end of Soeharto's regime and the program was put to air within a week.

E6. Death Sentence

60m

Australia now has one of the highest rates of jail deaths of any developed country. Four Corners looks at how a short stay in jail for two Western Australian teenagers became a death sentence

E7. The Superannuation Stakes

60m

The whole $320 billion superannuation system is to be thrown wide open but just how prepared are we?

E8. On the Right Track?

60m

Next year the Victorian Government plans to have the old public transport monopoly, the trams, the trains and buses, in private hands. So this journey takes us from one extreme of protectionism towards another of privatisation. These are big changes with real impacts for ordinary people's work and lives

E9. The Men Who Saved Australia

60m

The stories of the men who saved Australia by fighting the Japanese on the Kokoda Trail should be well known, should be retold, not just because they are so utterly remarkable, but because they tell us so much about what ordinary Australians can do

E10. Troubled Waters

May 4, 1998 · 60m

As Australian Jews celebrate Israel's 50th birthday, Sasha Elterman is celebrating her own survival. Four other Australians weren't as lucky. They died last year at what should have been another celebration of Jewish unity. Four Corners examines the Maccabiah tragedy -- how one of the world's biggest sporting events ended up in Troubled Waters.

E11. The Country Doctors

60m

As the shock of the Asia crisis hits the Australian economy hard, and Indonesia erupts into violence, we ask if the men at the International Monetary Fund know what they're doing in Asia

E12. Never Say Never

60m

The Howard Government is staking its future on tax reform. But will the voters buy a GST?

E13. Timor: The Final Solution

60m

Was East Timor an unavoidable sacrifice to Australian-Indonesian big-picture politics? What is our record on this most personal test of international relations? And after the fall of Soeharto is an answer at last in sight?

E14. Dead and Buried

60m

Every year Australia's hospitals kill 10,000 of their patients. Doctors, health professionals and the relatives of victims are pleading for action.

E15. The Gatekeepers

60m

Have the police become too soft on crime? Pressure is building for a tough new approach on the streets. Four Corners spent a week with the Hurstville police to get a feel for the reality of crime and policing in Australian towns and cities

E16. The Muscle Racket

60m

Rugby league was crash-tackled recently when four of its stars tested positive for banned drugs but, as usual, only the athletes were blamed. Four Corners goes behind the positive tests to expose the key players in a thriving national black market in steroids.

E17. The Survivor's Story

60m

This is the story of the night a massive tidal wave devastated the Papua New Guinean village of Warapu and the decisions that now confront the villagers.

E18. Many Happy Returns

60m

On September 18 Christopher Skase turns 50. He might toast his victory over Australian regulators having shunned our courts, defeated extradition and won the right to travel as a citizen of Dominica. How did he do it, what has it cost him and what have we learned in the 10 years since his last big birthday bash?

E19. His Honour

60m

When the Coalition Government appointed Ian Callinan to the High Court of Australia, they knew they were in for controversy.

E20. The Stayer

Sep 21, 1998 · 60m

A personal and political journey with Kim Beazley, as he fights to lead the nation.

E21. The Gambler

60m

Four Corners examines Prime Minister John Howard's two-and-a-half years in office to try to understand why he's staking everything on one major reform.

E22. Fleeced

60m

The wool industry, once Australia's biggest export earner and employer, is down and nearly out. Sloppy management, secret deals and bullying tactics are crippling this Australian icon.

E23. Viva Viagra

60m

Viagra has become the fastest selling pharmaceutical drug in history. Four Corners examines who's buying and selling Viagra in Australia, and who will pay the price. Is Viagra a medical or a marketing miracle?

E24. Brothers in Arms

Nov 9, 1998 · 60m

The Anzac legend is like a cenotaph, an empty tomb in our own history. Eighty years after the end of the Great War, so much of the story of the Anzac remains unverifiable, unresolved. This program is about how the formula was found that ended the slaughter on the western front, and how much honour is due the digger.