The real answer to this question is "habit". The people who drew up the Australian Constitution in the 1890's thought of themselves as British citizens, even though they were literally making plans for a new nation that would be independent of England. In terms of taxes, I don't believe Commonwealth membership costs us much - though I'm not super informed on this point. I could be swayed on the matter.

Even as citizens of the new nation of Australia, that generation of Australians still thought of themselves as British, too. It took a few more generations for us to really think of ourselves as purely and exclusively Australian.

If the constitution were being drafted up today, we'd have a serious conversation about whether we'd be a Constitutional Monarchy or some sort of Republic. But, it's not and we're not.

There are real advantages to being a member of the Commonwealth of nations. I'm not entirely dissatisfied with the status quo. If we ever do split from the Commonwealth, I'd want to look closely at what is proposed to replace it. I would not for example want our government to end up like what our friends in the USA have.

• Get Seagoon_ back online
• Work
• Call Christmas Holiday booking place

If you are on a diet, this meal has very few kilojoules/calories. Fewer than a single slice of bread.

It's still potentially a solved problem. One that has been most annoying.

It feels like everything in All is about an election in the USA, and that's really not very engaging to the rest of us. So I mostly hang out in Local for the most part.

Yeah, we will of course. His artwork is even pretty good - particularly for him.

There are no new account requests waiting for approval.
Well, there was one, but it was some spam about roof repairs in Canberra and I rejected that one. Now, there are none waiting.

@Duenan has hit the issue right on the head. 😆

Wait, what? There's no accounts waiting for approval?

As a fundraiser, the school sent us to a website where you can view some art your kid has done and then order it as a pillow, tote bag, calendar or a bunch of other options. Only this website lets you look at every piece of art that every kid in the school has done and pick any art any kid at the school has done. You just say I want this kid's art on my $15 tote bag, thanks.

My dilemma is my kid is not the greatest artist in the school.

This is always where it gets complicated. One house is pretty limiting. Lots of people have holiday homes - should that become illegal? People buy homes to support family (particularly elderly or disabled family) members in an environment that allows them some space and independence.

Should a married couple be allowed to have two homes? Should I be allowed to buy homes in my kids' names to get around such a limitation?

I don't have the answers to any of this. Housing is a super complicated and politically charged topic. There are a million millionaires out there with the bulk of their net worth tied up in the value of their homes. The scary truth is they don't really want to solve this problem, because if houses stop costing most of a million (or more) dollars to buy, they stop being millionaires.

The ABC reported that the location was close to his fiance's family. She's on the mortgage, also.

We were talking about this one in the office yesterday. George was all over the telly 20 years ago. He was in our homes and seemed in our lives.

But anyone who wasn't watching tv before about 2005 had no idea who he was.

Well, don't look at us. We sure didn't give it to 'em! 😀

I can't tell whether you are talking about a chocolate burger, or putting bacon into a chocolate shake. Either choice is interesting.

Cyanenergy exists for real? I thought they were a scam.

For sure, that's the target market - but the trick only works if the property holds that value in the first place. I don't see 9.3M value here, no matter how you twist and stretch it.

Loads of them in Southbank. Drive around that area around 7-8pm. Prime time of day for people to be home and awake. Entire apartment buildings are 75% dark.

I'm not certain whether this will be the same. I truly can't see how they can be valued at $9.5M. Who the hell is going to buy them? 4 Bedrooms suggests families. But any family with that much to spend isn't going to want their kids on a busy corner and no yard to run around in.

While it's derelict, there's a 4-bedroom house/yard going for $2M a few hundred meters away. You could spend a Million totally renovating that place and really sprucing it up and still move in before this building is finished. And for a third of the price.

They're paid well. Let's be real: I'd buy a dream home also if I pulled a parliamentary salary.

I also believe they should be paid well. Corruption is a big enough issue with elected officials. You reduce the risk of bribery and corruption by taking "money" off their list of personal problems.

Besides, PMs are still not paid enough for what they put up with. Imagine having half the country hating you and angry with you simply because your employer is not their favourite employer. Being the CEO of any large company pays better and comes with far less personal hate. It'd be like being the CEO of Coles where people exclusively shop at Coles or Woolies and are actively hostile at the customers and employees of the other. Oh, and their CEOs are famous household names. It ultimately doesn't even matter how good of a job you do, half the population is going to hate you and dissect every little thing you say and do anyway - on or off the clock.

No thanks. Let the dude have his beach house.

I am however in complete agreement with you on the investment property thing. I don't know what the solution to the housing crisis is, but you're sure not going to solve it by piling onto the problem. Renting out your house that isn't meeting your own needs for some reason or another is fine. There are many examples where that is understandable. Building a portfolio of 3+ houses and renting them out so you can live off that as income is something I believe needs to become far less attractive.

This article has been incorrectly labelled as Satire.

Dear Aunty, If you're going to throw a bunch of wildly new and experimental features at your news site, please at least make them options. I despise short-form videos. I don't want a whole section of the site dedicated to short videos. I disable YouTube Shorts every 30 days in the hopes YouTube will take the hint and let us kill them from our feeds entirely.

When I want to watch videos, I fire up iView.