Background Briefing ABC News

When an electoral officer helps police arrest a popular politician, her life begins to unravel. Her boss would spend more than a decade in prison, but she loses her job, and is even eventually admitted to a mental health institution. Now she’s asking: could he have been stopped earlier? Reporter Tynan King investigates.

What happens when a person blows the whistle on wrongdoing? 

A woman has lost the ability to speak and is forced to communicate by blinking. From her hospital bed she tries to blink out a request, but hospital staff refuse to help.

Background Briefing can reveal that similar situations are playing out in many public health facilities across Australia, as patients pursue their legal right to die, and healthcare workers say "no".

This week reporter and Dharawal woman Brooke Fryer goes inside a program that's helping violent men turn their lives around.

He left a trail of defect-riddled apartment buildings across Sydney and debts exceeding $600m to his creditors. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest. The NSW Premier has even offered to pay for his flight back to Australia. This week, Background Briefing tracks down the notorious and elusive Jean Nassif, who gives his first exclusive sit-down interview since he left Australia more than a year ago.

Ruby's barely a teenager, and already she's become a champion bull rider. She's also had eight concussions and multiple brain bleeds. Reporter Tynan King investigates how this extreme sport became her obsession — even as it threatens her life.