60 Minutes: Feb 18

60 Minutes returns for an amazing 40th year this Sunday with Tom Steinfort joining the team of Charles Wooley, Liz Hayes, Liam Bartlett, Tara Brown, Ross Coulthart and Allison Langdon.

Liz Hayes has been travelling with PM Malcolm Turnbull however the question will be whether her access included his reactions during the Barna-aby fallout or whether it is cleverly looped into the story via news footage.

Taken?
For the first program of the 40th season, Liam Bartlett investigates one of the strangest stories in 60 Minutes history. Chloe Ayling is a stunning and in-demand glamour model, but last July she was abducted off a street in Milan in Italy by two masked men. She was drugged, gagged, and held hostage in a remote farmhouse. The kidnappers’ evil intention was to auction Chloe on the internet as a sex slave to the highest bidder. The plan failed, because the 20-year-old model says she was able outwit her captors. But Chloe’s story of escape from this nightmare is almost too heroic to believe, and many people think she’s lying. An Italian court is currently trying to determine the truth in this gripping case, but in an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, Chloe maintains she is the victim, not the mastermind of an elaborate publicity scam.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Stefanie Sgroi, Eliza Berkery

I Love Lucy
There are two words Prime Ministers never want to hear in the same sentence – sex and scandal. Just ask Malcolm Turnbull, who has been lumbered with cleaning up the political mess caused by the personal life of his deputy, Barnaby Joyce. By Thursday, the Prime Minister had had enough of Joyce, describing his actions as a “shocking error of judgement”. On Friday, Barnaby Joyce hit back, accusing Turnbull of being “inept and unnecessary” in his comments. This embarrassing crisis for the coalition government has played out while Liz Hayes films a profile story on Malcolm Turnbull for 60 Minutes. For the past month she has been given exclusive access to the Prime Minister, travelled the country with him, and filmed him at home with wife Lucy. Hayes reveals the latest developments in the Barnaby Joyce saga. Her candid interview with the Turnbulls also gives a remarkable insight into why the Prime Minister is so disappointed with his deputy.
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Gareth Harvey

Bitcoin or Bitcon?
There has been an incredible amount of noise recently about the Bitcoin boom. For canny – or lucky – investors who got in early, watching the value of this crypto-currency soar to unimaginable highs was like winning the lottery. The price of Bitcoin is now rapidly retreating, but true believers say there are going to be many more digital goldrushes just like it. As Tom Steinfort discovers though, buyers need to beware, because this crypto-craziness is attracting the crypto-sharks, who are circling with some outrageously brazen scams.
Reporter: Tom Steinfort
Producers: Gareth Harvey, Sean Power

8.40pm on Channel Nine.