Kate McClymont on the fake accountant, the solicitor, and the stolen millions

When Mark Leishman and his wife Kathy first sought out the help of George Dimitriou, they were suffering with cash-flow problems at Mark’s business.  By the time their working relationship with Dimitriou finished - and after they discovered he was only pretending to be an accountant - their Newcastle home was repossessed, and they lost, they say, $4 million. Today, chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont on George Dimitriou, a serial conman and high-school drop-out who conned vulnerable people out of millions of dollars with the help of, allegedly, a bank loans manager, and a series of lawyers.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New figures out on Monday show that the median house values in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane have become, well, kind of insane. They’re the kind of figures that make people who’ve been desperately saving to break into the housing market tear at their hair by the roots.But new research shows that allowing Australians to subdivide their properties could mean a million new homes being delivered in the nation’s five largest capital cities.Today, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright, on whether this solution, which has eased price pressures in New Zealand, could be accepted here.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It really was the stuff of nightmares. A Swiss tourist, who was swimming with dolphins off the NSW coast, was suddenly mauled by a three-metre bull shark.  The 25-year-old died from her injuries, despite her heroic boyfriend, an exchange student also from Switzerland, fighting off the shark and carrying her to shore. Today, environment and climate reporter Caitlin Fitzsimmons, on why the number of people killed by sharks in Australia is rising.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Pauline Hanson marched into the Senate last week wearing a burqa, it felt, for a moment, like we were back in the 1990s.  Those were the sorts of stunts – and anti-immigration rhetoric – that the former fish and chip shop owner from Ipswich used to pull when she first swept into power.  But, with a high-profile member of parliament on the verge of defecting to her party, and polling placing support for One Nation at its highest level since 1998, it appears that we are witnessing the second coming of One Nation. Today, columnist and former associate editor of The Age, Shaun Carney, on what a rise in support for One Nation says about Australia.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, Barnaby Joyce finally announced his resignation from the Nationals this week, paving his way to join One Nation, in a week where Pauline Hanson recycled a burqa stunt from 2017.And it’s amid this turmoil that we have a special guest with chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal and Jacqueline Maley - Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We feel like we’ve known him since he was in nappies. But now, at 21, the fame enjoyed by Robert Irwin - the son of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin - has been supercharged after winning one of America’s top reality television shows, Dancing with the Stars. Today, culture editor-at-large Michael Idato on the Irwin family empire and how Robert Irwin’s brand of "nice" has won over America.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump has long tried to stamp American institutions - and the daily life of his country’s citizens - with his ultra-conservative ideology, openly waging war on diversity, transgender rights and women, among other targets.But now he wants American diplomats in Canberra to report back to him about the way we live.Today, North America correspondent Michael Koziol on why Trump wants detailed information about the crime that takes place on our shores.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Bureau of Meteorology has been plagued with public stuff-ups, including, just a few years ago, a false tsunami alert sent to half of the country.This is a problem because farmers use the site to plan harvests, fisherman use it navigate the seas, and the rest of us rely on it to decide if we need to bring an umbrella, or can safely travel from one suburb to the next.Today, climate and energy correspondent Mike Foley on the bureau’s latest disaster: a problematic website revamp that went tens of millions of dollars over budget, proved difficult to use, and, in one case, made severe storms over Brisbane seem less threatening than they actually were.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Australia banned the importation of Russian crude oil. Even so, Russian oil is still making its way to our shores, and into our petrol.Kateryna Argyrou calls this blood oil - money from which goes to fund the Kremlin’s war machine.Today, Argryou, who chairs the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations and is also honorary consul of Ukraine in Sydney, joins Europe correspondent David Crowe.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recently on this podcast we have been highly fixated on the problems within the Liberal opposition and we have neglected the government somewhat. So this week we are going to focus on Labor, and to that end we have a real treat for listeners. Sean Kelly, a columnist for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, was previously a Labor staffer with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. He is the author of a book called The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison, and he has just published the latest quarterly essay – which is called The Good Fight, What Does Labor Stand For?Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.