What a waste of island bench space by putting large sinks and even a stove top (Tanya and Vitto). Island benches are the heart of our kitchen, family and friends sit around them so you need maximum space so unless you have a huge bench it's a sin to waste space putting sinks and stove tops.  I agree with the judges on Mick and Mitch's kitchen, you cannot have a huge house with four bedrooms and no walk in pantry.  Yes draws are great for a smaller house or even apartment but in that kitchen there wasn't even enough room for the pots and kettles! 

@guest2 in the past the Union demonstrations were about work safety and work conditions.  The mob demonstrating the last few days has been campaigning against measures that aim to increase the workers' and community safety i.e. they are trying to undo any union gains in that area.  There might have been some unionists there but make no mistake this issue has been hijacked by elements who actively work against unions. 

Jana Pittman! She patches up the recruits, supports them emotionally, talks openly about postpartum incontinence, aces most challenges and she even remembered the number on the helicopter. What a legend.  Huge respect. 

I am afraid that you are right, our compassion these days is reserved only for the select few.  Maybe it is social media and the noise the few are making, maybe is the fear of the Morrison/Joyce government of losing swinging voters to One Nation and other fringe parties, maybe it is a ploy from Scott Morrison hoping to wedge the ALP with an eye to next year's election - whatever the reason he has not the backbone Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke displayed when they gave asylum to so many more Vietnamese (most of them boat people, a demonised group these days) and Chinese, despite opposition from the usual suspects.  Even Tony Abbott, the one with the three word slogans, gave asylum to 12,000 Syrian (albeit most of them Christians) refugees.  Not only Morrison will give asylum to such a measly low number of refugees but he will not give the Afghans who are here on TPVs permanent residency, condemning them to a life of uncertainty and inability to bring their families here - Fraser would be turning in his grave now'

@snorks the main reason we stayed in Afghanistan since 2012 was to prove ourselves a valuable US ally, even though we knew that the war was unwinnable. That's been well documented by whistle-blowers who paid with their liberty for their attempt to inform the Australian public.  

Whether this person is a covid denier or does not speak English is immaterial.  He wouldn't have made it all the way to Byron Bay if the business and premises he visited on the way enforced QR code checking.  You don't have the green tick, then we cannot serve you or let you in our premises.  Considering that in the Byron area certain business will not allow people to come in wearing masks I think he would have found it easy to get around there.  That's what happens when we slacken off or believe conspiracy theories perpetuated by geriatric shock jocks and Coalition politicians. 

Thank you for that brief portrait of Patty Mills outside the court. It is clear he's been one of the most inspired and appropriate choices for a flag-bearer of the Australian team in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics.  May he stay well and strong to continue his amazing work.

It has always puzzled me why a word referring to a woman's anatomy should be considered the worse swear word in the English language.  There is not an equivalent reaction when anyone is called the male equivalent.  I know many women who use that word to take its sting away from it and make it a word of empowerment when will TV and media catch up to this?

I grew up in a country that had experienced dictatorships, arbitrary detentions and disappearances, where police were feared and acted with impunity. This shaped my political views and attitudes and had we been in the same situation 38 years ago I would have most likely joined these protesters as a young uni student.  But I still find it difficult not to be angry at this mob, because most of the people I argue with have not experienced that level of oppression, are educated and have access to a plethora of resources, something that was not around 40 years ago.  What's worse many of these deliberately target minority and disadvantaged groups for their recruiting, it started with the previous election (printing and distributing misinformation about the ALPs policies in community languages), continued with blaming greenies and a world government for the bushfires , got worse during the US presidential election and has reached frenzied heights with Covid and the lockdowns. Same people all the time, recruiting others to do their dirty work.  I cannot and will not forgive those. 

Love your funny recaps so much that I started watching the show.  I agree it is one of the most wholesome shows on TV at the moment, brings laughs, tears and fuzzy moments all the time.  Last night my wife and I were hysterics with the fitness class task, we love the geeks and the beauties more and more. 

With ABC's Media Watch exposing the duplicity and deception of our Federal Government is it a surprise that the LNP is determined to weaken our national broadcaster?  From constant funding cuts, to constant attacks on its objectivity to calls to privatise ABC, the government is trying to distract from their negligence on trying to minimise the effects of climate change. 

Finished watching Love on The Spectrum last night. It's been a long time that a show made me feel so good inside, laugh and shed tears (happy ones) like LOTS.  It is an eye opener and an example of genuine, kind young people overcoming adversity in their pursuit of romantic relationships. Gold standard tv.

Barbaby Joyce replaced Darren Chester, one of the most competent and respected ministers for Veterans' Affairs in a very long time, with one of his supporters.  And the coalition oppose quotas because they argue that appointments are made on merit. What a joke! 

I was and still am angry about the behaviour of the fans and the AFL during those days so I can imagine how much more Adam Goodes feels the hurt. The approach to induct him to the Football hall of fame is like someone who has been repeatedly abused and has moved away from their abuser to be asked back by that person to "honour" them.  No effing way.  However I do hope (cos I bleed red and white) that one day Goodes will re-connect with the AFL in his own terms. He can be a great ambassador for the game and a voice against the pervasive nature of racism.  That's my hope as a white middle-aged fan of the swans and a father of two sons who identify as indigenous. Whatever decision Adam makes I'll always respect him and admire him. 

@StaceyS so if they arrived by plane like more than 100,000 other asylum seekers since the Coalition came in power you would show more empathy for the parents?  The fact is that they are punished  as a deterrent to any future boat arrivals, because the Coalition made it such a huge political stick to beat Labor and are making a big issue that they stopped the boats! The boats are turned back, they never stopped, although they are fewer now than before.  They also declared that since the civil war in Sri Lanka officially "ended" it is safe for asylum seekers to return there in exchange of an undertaking by the Sri Lankan military & government to stop any boats leaving that country.  We even sell weapons and train that military for this role.  The fact is that the persecution of the Tamils, and especially those who took part in the civil war continues. It just suits our government to pretend it doesn't happen and almost all refugee applications from that area are rejected on that decision. We are being lied just to appeal to the worst instincts of a small percentage of swinging voters.

Thank you for keeping the plight of Nadesalingam and Priya and their beautiful girls on the front page.  I am shocked and saddened from the negative and insensitive comments their story receives every time it appears in the Nine and News Limited newspapers, so I hope that here this story will find a more sympathetic audience.  It doesn't surprise me anymore that our government spends tens of millions each year to keep this family and other boat arrivals under detention for years and years on end, since it seems to be an electorally popular policy.  We should keep talking about this family and others continually until the government realises that doing vaccination on the cheap but spending inordinate amounts of money on detention of genuine refugees is not what Australians want anymore.

@ak87 Hear, hear.  It amazes me that more columns have been written and more outrage has been directed to Harry for walking out of the mould of royal behaviour and expectations than written about Andrew and his involvement with a convicted sex offender and paedophile. 

@mamamia-user-482898552 I agree that Tim Fisher was instrumental for getting the policy accepted by the country voters.  For that Australians should be grateful.  

As a Christian I am puzzled about the un-Christ like behaviour of many Christians who flaunt their piety and religion.  The prosperity theology espoused by Mr Morrison and his fellow churchgoers is not God's work but divides the country, demonises the poor and unemployed, downplays sex discrimination and assault and promotes the politics of greed for as long as you accept Jesus as your saviour.  I'd rather an atheist with humanist beliefs in government than the zealots we have now. 

Lest we forget those heroic men and women of the greatest generation.