Australia Day chair Danielle Roche has had her day

Cartoon: Rod Clement

The federal government will certainly not be inviting debate over it, but Danielle Roche’s position as chair of the board of the National Australia Day Council concludes next month.

Roche took on the role in 2017, and there’s been no extension, nor replacement, yet ­announced.

Roche, best known as a member of the Australian women’s hockey team that won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, is an ­investment manager at Ord Minnett, with some 14 years ­experience working in the ­finance sector.

Her predecessor, Ben Roberts-Smith VC, the most highly decorated serviceman from the war in Afghanistan, was in the chair for just three years. But prior to him, retired cricketer Adam Gilchrist did six years and swimming champion Lisa Curry Kenny eight years.

Roche, based in Tamarama, in Sydney’s east, heads the council, whose mission is to promote our national day to inspire ­national pride and recognise inspiring Australians. No easy task, especially against the backdrop of recent weeks.

It was simpler times when Bob Ellicott in Malcolm Fraser’sgovernment established a committee in 1979 that morphed into the council in 1990. The 1979 organisation was initially headed by Olympian runner Herb ­Elliott with committee members including television compere Mike Walsh and Tania Young, (nee Verstak), the first migrant to win the Miss Australia title.

Land rights activist Galarrwuy Yunupingu was on the first committee having been the 1978 Australian of the Year when he expressed the hope the award would assist him in future negotiations. “Governments and mining companies don’t normally deal with just any ratbags and radicals,” he said at the time.

The NADC reports to Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Ben Morton, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, as the responsible minister.

Nobu lobs at Crown

It’s no surprise the world famous restaurant Nobu’s next distant outpost will be in James Packer’s Crown Sydney, One Barangaroo building.

In 2015, Packer spent $140m taking a 20 per cent stake in the restaurant and hotel chain, which is run by chef Nobu Matsuhisa and co-owned by Packer’s long-time mate, the Hollywood A-lister Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper.

Desirous diners will be able to enjoy the Japanese-Peruvian cuisine from December, although Margin Call reckons there will be a scramble when reservations open.

Surely Packer will get the best seat in the house, to savour the black cod with miso, when he travels down the lift from his soon-to-be-completed Blainey North-designed $60m apartment in the 75-storey tower.

Nobu opened in 1994 in New York and ventured to Australia, opening in Melbourne’s Crown in 2007. Perth’s Crown venue followed in 2011. There are now 42 restaurants in 40 countries, and 10 hotels.

“Crown Sydney is an incredible location for me … to have that view to work with is incredible — it’s one of the most picturesque locations of any of my Nobus,” Matsuhisa advised.

Crown chief operating officer Peter Crinis previously announced Michelin-star restaurateur Clare Smyth would also be opening there.

Gina fumes at claim

Miner Gina Rinehart has rubbished claims she invested $5m in a start-up crypto currency platform. It seems the annoying social media posts, and associated fake news stories, have become too much for Rinehart, whose net worth is around $22.5bn, and needs no financial quick play.

“Mrs Rinehart has not made the alleged investment or recommendations or quotes set forth in these adverts,” her statement on her website advises.

“This is a scam designed to use Mrs Rinehart’s positive corporate image to lure people in to invest.”

Western Australia’s other billionaire miner, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, has also been subject to similar fake posts. One woman lost more than $600,000 investing in the scam.

“It has come to our attention that the name, image and misinformation about the personal life of our chairman Andrew Forrest have been used to entice people into paying money to scammers,” Fortescue Metals advised in April last year.

“Such scams are abhorrent and we are doing what we can to try and alert people to them.”

Stamp of approval

The borders may still be closed in Queensland but that hasn’t stopped a blossoming friendship, crossing political and geographical divides. As Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate pedalled her postie bike around Canberra last week to spruik her alleged temporary reforms of the postal service, she picked up an unlikely ally.

Senator Pauline Hanson has thrown her support behind Holgate. Hanson believes Holgate is doing a terrific job heading Post, unlike her predecessor Ahmed Fahour, who she highly criticised, particularly his nose bleedingly high salary.

McMillions fills gap

Now that Billions has gone into its COVID-19 hiatus, departing with one pandemic reference in its most recent episode, Margin Call has possibly found a perfect fill-in on Binge.

McMillions starts on Sunday. The documentary has everything — greed, revenge, drugs and Ronald McDonald — in a six-part series with Mark Wahlberg as its executive producer. Maybe even Hamburglar, as McMillions delves into the stranger-than-fiction story of a mysterious figure who hoodwinked the McDonald’s fast food empire by rigging its scratch card game of Monopoly. The criminal mastermind defrauded McDonald’s of $24m while evading the FBI from 1989 to 2001.

The HBO series reveals the scam transitioning from a profitable secret among family and friends to a huge mafia conspiracy. It aired earlier this year in the US and will be available for Australian audiences on the new $10-a-month streaming service Binge, launched recently by Foxtel.

Blanchett’s arts ranch

Cate Blanchett’sremarkable Macquarie Street, Sydney bolthole has been revealed as an arts devotee’s paradise, with the most striking artwork a bunny sculpture.

Framing the living room window, which has northeast parkland views of Sydney Harbour, the huge, long-eared bunny is by artist Linde Ivimey. There’s plenty of space — in fact, 400sq m — in the split-level, three-apartment amalgamation in the historic Astor building. The artworks include a large Rosalie Gascoigne, an Ildiko Kovacs and a Tim Maguire, though not his portrait of Blanchett entered in the 2014 Archibald Prize.

The UK-based Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton listed it pre-pandemic with Ken Jacobs at Christie’s International, but the formal marketing only began on realestate.com.au on Friday. There’s no secrecy about the owners, with the ad advising its ownership.

Eagle eyes will then spot the statuettes on a side table that could only belong to a Hollywood star. There’s an Oscar, which could have been for her roles in The Aviator in 2005 or Blue Jasmine in 2014. Plus a BAFTA, of which she’s won three. And she’s not forgotten her roots, with an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award.

Some $12m is being sought by the couple, who bought it from mortgage broker Mark Bouris in 2015 for about $8m, followed by an extensive renovation by Alvaro Bros Builders.

Margin Call last inspected the apartment back in 1986, when it was Dame Edna Everage’spossum pit, with Australia’s first agent to the stars, Andrew Gibbons, then seeking $1.25m. It had been entertainer Barry Humphries who joined the two levels and installed its enduring Hollywood-style staircase, without worrying too much about the requisite company title paperwork.