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Four Corners
Season 47
Episode 24

Grist to the Mill

July 30, 2007

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Four Corners - S47 - E24

It started with dinner in a Hobart restaurant. The head of Tasmania's biggest timber company and the then Deputy Premier chatted about future plans for the forest industry in Tasmania. Four years on the Tasmanian Parliament is about to decide whether to give the nod to a .7 billion giant pulp mill on the banks of the Tamar River north of Launceston.

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Four Corners: Season 47 - 39 Episode s

47x1 - The Culture
February 12, 2007
It's blokey and it's bolshie, the envy of other unions, with near blanket coverage of its workforce. For decades it has sought to influence election campaigns, dragged concessions out of fearful governments and fought ferociously for its members.
47x2 - Battling the Booze
February 19, 2007
You don't have to be sitting on a street corner urinating in your trousers and shadow boxing to be a drunk. I'm living proof of that... - Ian
47x3 - The Denial Machine
February 26, 2007
For years the global warming debate has swirled like a firestorm. Science has been tossed about in a tornado of spin from doomsayers and doubters, deep green activists and fossil fuel lobbyists.
47x4 - The Road to Return
March 5, 2007
Who's tough on crime? It's an election season ritual: the law and order auction to see which party will put more cops on the streets or increase sentences or build more jails.
47x5 - Firestorm
March 12, 2007
Across southern Australia, fire chiefs are anxiously waiting for the cool draughts of autumn to extinguish another stress-filled season of sparks, flare-ups and rushed responses.
47x6 - You Only Live Twice
March 19, 2007
Our world might be getting smaller, thanks to technology, but virtual worlds and games are booming. Millions of people venture daily into these new and constantly evolving landscapes where they can conquer mythical armies, slay dragons and embark on other fantastical quests.
47x7 - A Hidden Life
March 26, 2007
In May 2005, citizens of Spokane, USA, woke to startling news about their city's mayor, Jim West. The outwardly conservative Republican, who had pushed legislation barring gay teachers from public schools, had whiled away his private hours trawling for young men on an Internet chatroom, the Spokesman-Review newspaper alleged. West reportedly abused his office by offering internships to lure them into more intimate relationships.
47x8 - David Hicks' Story
April 2, 2007
With a wispy moustache and long, lank hair, it was a different David Hicks who just faced US military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No longer the clean-cut young man smiling familiarly out of old family snaps - and no longer protesting his innocence.
47x9 - Treechange
April 9, 2007
Australia is planting trees. After years of debate about logging old growth forests what could seem more sensible or more worthy? And yet a national quarrel has developed about tree plantations, a quarrel that Chris Master discovers is quietly dividing rural communities and members of the Coalition Government.
47x10 - Earth, Wind and Fire
April 16, 2007
Picture a windswept hillside lined with slender white skyscrapers, each crowned by a giant whirring rotor longer than a jumbo jet. Or a swathe of desert covered by a sea of mirrors drawing power from the sun.
47x11 - Painting the Mind
April 23, 2007
Imagine surviving a massive brain injury, then waking up in hospital to discover your personality has completely transformed.
47x12 - The Dark Arts
April 30, 2007
"Well mate... let me just say this to you. I mean you wouldn't know this but I'm not a f...... good enemy to have..." (Brian Burke on the telephone)
47x13 - Dr Rosanna Capolingua
May 7, 2007
A confronting report in which fit and healthy elderly Australians reveal plans to take their own lives before they lose their independence. Is this a new fact of life in greying Australia?
47x14 - Mississippi Cold Case
May 21, 2007
One spring day in 1964, Charles Moore and Henry Dee were hitchhiking in rural Mississippi. The two black men were picked up by the Ku Klux Klan, tortured, locked in a car boot and driven to Louisiana, then chained to an engine block and dropped alive into the Mississippi River.
47x15 - A Private Affair
May 28, 2007
Nick off, it's not for sale!... Qantas shareholder's answer to the takeover offer.
47x16 - Torture
June 4, 2007
"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
47x17 - Ghost Prisoners
June 11, 2007
Shackled, gagged and blindfolded, they are bundled on to spy planes, spirited to Third World capitals and dumped in prison hellholes. There they face repeated interrogations that typically include prolonged sessions of torture, crudely inflicted, unimaginably endured.
47x18 - Tough Calls
June 18, 2007
"We run an absolute dictatorship and that's what's going to drive this transformation and deliver results... If you can't get the people to go there and you try once and you try twice... then you just shoot 'em and get them out of the way... " - Telstra Chief Operations Officer Greg Winn (at a May business meeting)
47x19 - The Home Front
June 25, 2007
While politicians clash noisily over global warming and how to fight it, millions of Australians are trying modestly to cut their energy use, to be a small part of a big solution.
47x20 - Forward Base Afghanistan
July 2, 2007
Like Star Wars figures beamed back to the 17th century, Australia's hi-tech, lethally-equipped soldiers cut a surreal presence as they cautiously patrol the baking dustbowl of southern Afghanistan, drawing just casual glances from turbaned tribesmen and nomadic herders.
47x21 - Real Spooks
July 9, 2007
Across Britain counter terrorism forces are gathering evidence against the planners of the failed car bomb plots in London and Glasgow. The forensic information gleaned from the vehicles and the arrests in Britain and Australia should allow them to piece together how the conspiracy was formed.
47x22 - The Cape Experiment
July 16, 2007
"If they don't take responsibility then we will step in. We want the system to work so that when people don't take responsibility we're able to step in ... you could lose your freedom if you don't abide by the conditions." Noel Pearson.
47x23 - For The Children's Sake
July 23, 2007
"My baby was the last thing that I thought about until I pulled that needle out of my arm." Sharon, drug user.
47x24 - Grist to the Mill
July 30, 2007
It started with dinner in a Hobart restaurant. The head of Tasmania's biggest timber company and the then Deputy Premier chatted about future plans for the forest industry in Tasmania. Four years on the Tasmanian Parliament is about to decide whether to give the nod to a .7 billion giant pulp mill on the banks of the Tamar River north of Launceston.
47x25 - The Behaviour Business
August 6, 2007
An angry child, lashing out at the world, struggling at school, labelled a 'problem'. The desperate parents, looking for help, hoping that one day their child will have a normal life. This is the traumatic world of families living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
47x26 - EYES WIDE OPEN
August 13, 2007
When was the last time you had a good night's sleep? Are you one of the million-plus Australians who spend their nights watching the minutes tick by, dreading the morning, knowing you'll be exhausted? Some say it feels like dragging a piano around, an awful deadening weight.
47x27 - Friends of God
August 20, 2007
"I don't think you can win without them. And I think if they're unified, you'll lose if they go against you. John Kerry learned that. Al Gore learned that and Hillary will learn that in 2008. The church is the only hope for the recovery of this country. And this is a do or die thing with us; we are not playing games with it. We are absolutely planning to take this nation back for God." The late Reverend Jerry Falwell.
47x28 - First Do No Harm
August 27, 2007
How do you know if you can trust your doctor? How do you know if they have the skills to heal you? How do you find out, what all too often, the medical profession already knows: who to go to and who to avoid? It's been the ultimate insider's secret, the doctor you would never let near your own family or friends.
47x29 - When Kids Get Life
September 3, 2007
The crimes are shocking, the perpetrators alarmingly young. A 15-year-old who brutally murdered his parents; a 15-year-old participant in a fatal car-jacking; a 17-year-old who killed a schoolmate in a robbery gone wrong. Prosecutors have labelled them "the worst of the worst". All three of them will spend the rest of their lives in jail as a result of mandatory sentencing laws.
47x30 - Hokey Pokie
September 10, 2007
"There's no country in the world that has gambling in clubs and pubs in the way that we do in Australia." Professor Jan McMillen.
47x31 - Mortgage Meltdown
September 17, 2007
"When the US sneezes the rest of the world gets the cold."
47x32 - Afghanistan Unveiled
September 24, 2007
The pictures were shocking. A woman swathed in a blue burqa, stumbling across the ground, barely able to see. Forced to her knees, then shot in the head. Publicly executed in a soccer stadium. Punishment, Taliban style.
47x33 - The Trials of Dr Haneef
October 1, 2007
On Saturday June 30 an explosives-filled Jeep Cherokee careered into Glasgow's airport terminal. Images of the flaming car and one of the attackers, Kafeel Ahmed, grotesquely burnt and struggling on the ground, sent a shudder of fear through Britain.
47x34 - Burma's Secret War
October 8, 2007
Democracy will just have to wait. The rallies have been crushed and the protesters are in captivity, in hiding, or fleeing the country. Military vehicles sweep Burma's main city Rangoon blaring menace from loudspeakers: "We have photographs. We are going to make arrests."
47x35 - The Brethren Express
October 15, 2007
They don't vote and they repudiate any organised role in politics. It's God's call, they say, whether governments stand or fall.
47x36 - The Real Godfather
October 22, 2007
They called him The Tractor. "He mowed people down," explained an informant.
47x37 - Flying Blind
October 29, 2007
"If you think about all the planes that are available as being puppies in a litter, the Super Hornet is the runt." US aviation analyst James Stevenson
47x38 - Tracking the Intervention
November 5, 2007
After decades of hollow promises, it was time to cut the talk. In Canberra's eyes the rolling scandal of child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities demanded action, swift and certain.
47x39 - The Undecided
November 12, 2007
In the political marketplace, their votes are gold dust. People like Matthew, Nicole, Mark, Deanne and George will determine who governs Australia after November 24. All are marginal seat voters. In recent elections all have gone with John Howard.

47x1 - The Culture

47x2 - Battling the Booze

47x3 - The Denial Machine

47x4 - The Road to Return

47x5 - Firestorm

47x6 - You Only Live Twice

47x7 - A Hidden Life

47x8 - David Hicks' Story

47x9 - Treechange

47x10 - Earth, Wind and Fire

47x11 - Painting the Mind

47x12 - The Dark Arts

47x13 - Dr Rosanna Capolingua

47x14 - Mississippi Cold Case

47x15 - A Private Affair

47x16 - Torture

47x17 - Ghost Prisoners

47x18 - Tough Calls

47x19 - The Home Front

47x20 - Forward Base Afghanistan

47x21 - Real Spooks

47x22 - The Cape Experiment

47x23 - For The Children's Sake

47x24 - Grist to the Mill

47x25 - The Behaviour Business

47x26 - EYES WIDE OPEN

47x27 - Friends of God

47x28 - First Do No Harm

47x29 - When Kids Get Life

47x30 - Hokey Pokie

47x31 - Mortgage Meltdown

47x32 - Afghanistan Unveiled

47x33 - The Trials of Dr Haneef

47x34 - Burma's Secret War

47x35 - The Brethren Express

47x36 - The Real Godfather

47x37 - Flying Blind

47x38 - Tracking the Intervention

47x39 - The Undecided

S23: Series 1983

S44: Series 2004

S46: Series 2006

S47: Series 2007

S49: Series 2009

S50: Series 2010

S51: Series 2011

S52: Series 2012

S53: Series 2013

S54: Series 2014

S55: Series 2015

S56: Series 2016

S57: Series 2017

S58: Series 2018

S59: Series 2019

S60: Series 2020

S61: Series 2021

S62: Series 2022

S63: Series 2023

S64: Series 2024