Secrets, Spies and Sabotage: 40 years on, SBS podcast investigates historic bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior
8 July, 2025
Media releases
Marking the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Greenpeace's international flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, award-winning investigative journalist Richard Baker has re-examined Australia's part in one of the most far-reaching international scandals of the 1980s, in SBS Audio's latest podcast Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island.
Uncovering a sealed 374-page Australian government file, Baker travels to the scene of a real-life international spy thriller. After bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour and killing photographer Fernando Pereira, four French agents escaped to Norfolk Island where they were eventually detained. However, after 24 hours in custody they were allowed to leave, ultimately evading justice.
The Rainbow Warrior had arrived in Auckland after evacuating 300 people from Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where they had been subject to fallout from US nuclear-testing, and was next destined for Mururoa Atoll to protest French nuclear testing there.
Baker investigates the role that Australia played in the global headline-making affair, interviewing locals who witnessed the events on Norfolk Island, talking to Pacific Islanders who were exposed to radiation from the US and French nuclear-testing programs, and investigating from the Pacific to Paris to uncover the real story.
Host of Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island, Richard Baker said; The more I looked into it, the more I was drawn to the events that unfolded on Norfolk Island forty years ago. I placed my bets on a 374-page sealed document from the National Archives of Australia and travelled to the region to speak to the locals - and from that, the podcast series Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island was born.
It turned out I wasn't the only one who thought something didn't add up. In this series, I uncover Australia's covert role in an international scandal, the geopolitical situation that was driving the government of the day, and the part Australia still plays today in the ongoing battle for influence over the region.
The six-part podcast series features interviews with Maurice Witham, detective inspector who was second in command of the Rainbow Warrior investigation; Chris Martin, New Zealand detective who went to Norfolk Island to interrogate the French agents; Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, French Polynesian anti-nuclear activist and politician; and Lopeti Sentuli, Tongan anti-nuclear campaigner and lawyer on the ongoing fight for a nuclear-free Pacific.
Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island is the latest offering from SBS, recently named the Australian Podcaster of the Year for the third year in a row. Itlaunches today on SBS Audio, ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Listen to all of SBS Audio's podcasts on the SBS Audio App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LiSTNR or wherever you stream podcasts. Episodes launching weekly.
For a pdf copy of this media release, click here.
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Secrets, Spies and Sabotage: 40 years on, SBS podcast investigates historic bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior 
