If you've bought a house lately - or tried to - then you'd know the price advertised for properties in the big cities are, more often than not, way below what they sell for.

But we've never really had a handle on how widespread underquoting is. Until now.

In a new investigation that analysed tens of thousands of property sales in Sydney and Melbourne, our mastheads have uncovered an extraodinary level of misinformation and deception faced by property buyers.

In today's episode, reporters Aisha Dow and Lucy Macken take us through the results of this investigation and how dodgy price estimates are an open secret in Australia's property market.

To read all the stories in the 'Bidding Blind' series, go to: https://www.theage.com.au/national/bidding-blind-melbourne-20250724-p5mhkc.html

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This week on the pod we are going to delve into what we are calling Canberra’s Coachella - AKA the Productivity Summit, which is happening the week after next.

What is the point of it? And what is productivity anyway?

Here to discuss, we have Chief Political Correspondent, Paul Sakkal as usual, and special guest star and productivity king, Senior Economics Correspondent Shane Wright.

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If you heard the news that Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday and responded with a shrug, you probably weren’t alone. How do or die are monthly jobs statistics? And wasn’t this just another instance of Trump attacking someone whose findings he didn’t like?

Not according to experts from across the political aisle, who have raised the alarm that this move represents a different threat, altogether. Even for Donald Trump.

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher, on what history tells us happens once a country’s leader starts controlling facts.

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We all know that divorce settlements often get ugly.

We hear stories about the couples who chainsaw couches in half, such is their disagreement over who is entitled to get what. So, who knew that, behind our backs, divorce settlements have been getting even messier?

Today, legal affairs reporter Michaela Whitbourn on the new methods that couples are using to hide their assets.

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Picture this. A man has been convicted of rape. And as he sits in his prison cell, awaiting a sentence, he continues to be paid his taxpayer funded salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. He hasn’t been fired.

It might sound implausible. But this case is playing out right now, with a NSW member of parliament.

Today, state political editor Alexandra Smith on the case of Gareth Ward. And why behaviour that would get you fired from any job in the private sector, doesn’t automatically rule you out of making the law.

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If you feel like you’re working like crazy, but getting nowhere fast, you’re far from alone. It turns out that Australians work many more hours, per week, than our counterparts in Germany and Japan.

But a new study has shown the benefits of a four-day work week.

Today, economics writer Millie Muroi, on why the government keeps going on about productivity. And whether a shorter work week, which has already been adopted in other countries, could be heading our way.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian and UK prime ministers Mark Carney and Keir Starmer have all called for Palestine to be recognised, one way or another.

But Anthony Albanese remains cautious. So what is the Australian Prime Minister waiting for?

This week on Inside Politics, European correspondent David Crowe, national security correspondent Matthew Knott and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal explain.

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For the last 54 years, countless writers have lived by the words of the late author Graham Greene who wrote that writers should have a “splinter of ice in the heart”. He meant that we need to maintain a critical distance from the events we cover, in order to remain objective.

But have journalists become part of the world’s problems, with our focus on catastrophes?

Today, international and political editor, Peter Hartcher, on the argument that some journalists have been “bad friends” to all of you, and the clarion call for a new type of writing, to meet this moment of calamity that we find ourselves in.

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