5 October 2026 the ABC investigative show ran a story entitled Defenceless
Here’s their introduction
Australian veterans put their lives at risk serving their country.
Now, their lives are at risk in a system that’s failing them.
There are more than half a million veterans across the country, many of them living with the physical and mental scars of their service, and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is responsible for their welfare.
In 2022, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide found delays in processing claims was causing harm to veterans.
In response, the government invested more than half a billion dollars to clear the backlog and improve services, opening the door to private for-profit companies to move in.
This week on Four Corners, reporter Elise Worthington exposes how companies are squeezing veterans and taxpayers to maximise profits, while investigating the lucrative business model enriching shareholders at the expense of vulnerable ex-servicemen and women.
From dispensing medicinal cannabis without seeing a GP to charging exorbitant fees for writing reports, sharing private medical information, taking a cut of compensation claims and billing DVA for services that weren’t provided, this failure to regulate predatory billing targeting veterans is costing the Australian public millions.
Four Corners: Defenceless is reported by Elise Worthington and goes to air Monday, October 5 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
Statements and responses
A statement from the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh can be found here.
A response from Veterans First Consulting can be found here.
A response from Dr Tim Nelson can be found here.
A response from lawyers representing Joshua Tinning can be found here.
A response from Tom Bailey can be found here.
A response from Nick Flanigan can be found here.
You can watch the programme here (international viewers will most like need a vpn to access) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-05/defenceless/107230704
To be honest if there’s anybody in the Australian cannabis sector who wasn’t aware of this by now I’m not sure they should be doing their job.
Yes, as always, as in any sector there are “good” and “bad” players but there’s been year upon year of denial of reality by many in the “industry” and those bodies that have represented the sector and they have been burying their head in the sand for far too long while the problems stared them in the face.
The ABC have sometimes been accused of being too harsh on the sector and loving a cannabis hatchet job but the hard truth is that the industry really had and still has no desire to self regulate.
Of course it is despicable the way vunerable veterans have been taken advantage of but let’s also remember many other patients in a similar situation who might not get the same attention from the ABC because they don’t have any medals to hang around their neck.
There’s good reason that our ICS (International Cannabis Symposium) meeting at Sydney Uni Law School in March 2027 is entitled
Cannabis in Australia: My Brilliant Career or Mad Max
At the moment we are heading for the Mad Max scenario
As the saying goes .. If you want nice things.. and as i’m more of a MC5 guy …different era same issue
“The time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you’re going to be part of the problem or part of the solution.. you have 5 seconds to decide”
Teresa Nicoletti Partner at Mills Oakley wrote the following on Linked In 6 October 2026 after the show aired last night
Anyone who watched the ABC Four Corners program Defenceless last night would likely agree that it was difficult viewing.
What was covered in the program goes against every reason why I first became involved in the conversation about medicinal cannabis in 2014, and why I spent so many years advocating for patient access, including as Chair of Australia’s largest medicinal cannabis industry association.
I entered this sector because I believed that seriously ill Australians deserved access to safe, evidence-based treatment delivered within a framework of ethical, patient-centred care. What was described in this program is the opposite of that vision.
No patient, and particularly no veteran, should ever be viewed as a revenue stream, a sales target or a billing opportunity. Healthcare should never be built around maximising claims, product volumes or reimbursement outcomes. It should be built around the welfare of the person seeking care
The allegations in the program are especially disturbing because they involve veterans, a community that has already given so much in service to Australia and which often carries significant physical and psychological burdens. If even a fraction of what was alleged is ultimately proven to be true, it represents a profound failure of ethics and oversight.
It is important to stress that the issues exposed last night are not an indictment of medicinal cannabis itself. What was depicted bears little resemblance to the kind of patient-centred system that many of us worked towards when advocating for reform.
Through my involvement in this sector, I have consistently advocated for professionalism, responsible prescribing, appropriate governance and genuine patient care. Those are not abstract principles – they exist to protect patients.
Seeing allegations of this kind is deeply disappointing because it cuts directly across the values and principles that led many of us to become involved in this sector in the first place.
Veterans deserve better. Patients deserve better. And the many ethical clinicians and businesses operating in this space deserve better than to have their work overshadowed by conduct that places profits ahead of the best interests of patients.