Trooper M.I.A.

FRESHLY anointed Young Australian of the Year Trooper Mark Donaldson can count himself one of the nation's all-time heroes.

FRESHLY anointed Young Australian of the Year Trooper Mark Donaldson can count himself one of the nation's all-time heroes.

The SAS trooper fought alone for two hours in southeastern Afghanistan in the line of heavy Taliban machinegun fire, allowing his wounded comrades to be dragged to safety, before again braving enemy ground to rescue a severely wounded Afghan interpreter. But as observant Tweeter OzAlleyCat broadcast to her followers in the form of a Twitpic, the Australian War Memorial has not yet found the time to include Donaldson on its picture board of Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross in its Hall of Valour. Donaldson was awarded the military's highest honour for gallantry more than a year ago. A spokeswoman said the AWM had been looking at reorganising the picture board into alphabetical order and was flummoxed about how to integrate Donaldson's modern colour photograph with the 96 black-and-white ones. "Mark Donaldson VC's photograph is on display in the Memorial's Conflicts 1945 to today galleries, with his Victoria Cross, the order of the day; and a signed program from his presentation at Government House," she said. "The display is appropriately placed with other objects from Afghanistan and attracts a lot of interest from visitors . . . When the Hall of Valour is redeveloped in the near future, his photo will be included."

High-Tone places

QUITE a few things have changed in Canberra since Tony Abbott became Liberal leader, but one thing hasn't changed at all: Abbott's Monday night Chinese dinner at the esteemed, but tiny, Portia's Place in Kingston. Abbott is so devoted to Portia's that if it's a parliamentary sitting week he rings if he isn't coming to dinner on Monday night. So, on Monday night, the first of the new parliamentary sitting year, there was a table crowded with Liberal luminaries, headed by Abbott. Sharing the duck pancakes were Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, Nick Minchin and Peter Dutton. Although there had been some discussion of Hockey appearing on the ABC's Lateline, where Lindsay Tanner performed admirably for the government, Hockey deemed he'd done enough media for the day and opted for the dumplings with his new leader. Unfortunately for all the Liberals concerned, the exclusive atmosphere was spoiled when two more regular customers were seated near them as they dined: Kevin Rudd's chief of staff Alister Jordan and ALP federal secretary Karl Bitar. We're sure that the food was good.

Unamazing scenes

PREPARATIONS have got off to a low-key start for the opening of potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay's Australian branch of his international chain of restaurants, the fashionably lower-case maze. Ramsay's noshery, which will include a restaurant and grill, lounge and spa and in-room dining, will open in March and is to be located in the new Melbourne luxurama hotel complex, Crown Metropol. Maze advertised an open recruiting session last week and invited would-be workers for about 150 front and back-of-house positions to turn up at a recruitment day. Security guards were on hand and barriers in place to keep away the hordes keen for a bit of verbal abuse from the restaurant founder between stirring the bechamel sauce or scrubbing the 30-day grain-fed sheep's trotter dipped in lavender-soaked pistachio sugar from the plates. But Strewth understands the turnout was far from overwhelming. A spokeswoman for Crown, which is handling Ramsay's PR, said the first recruitment day was expected to be low-key because the advertisements were published in a Melbourne newspaper on Australia Day. Crown refuted the suggestion from a Strewth informant that only 56 people turned up to last week's recruitment day. "The recruitment day for maze and maze grill was an overwhelming success and organisers were thrilled with the calibre of the talent applying for positions," said Crown chief executive David Courtney. Another recruitment day will take place this Friday.

Big bootees to fill

THE birth of Jackson Lloyd Packer at Sydney's Mater Hospital on Monday quickly made news yesterday morning as proud parents James and Erica Packer basked in the joy brought by their newborn. The Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew Hornery led his coverage with the angle that the Packer dynasty would live on for another generation with the arrival of another Packer boy. "The Packer dynasty is a patriarchal one," Hornery said in his report of the birth. "James took the reins of the family's multi-billion-dollar empire following the death of his father, Kerry, four years ago. Kerry had taken over from his father, Sir Frank Packer. The baby is now set to take over from James." Geez, Andrew, the poor little fella's only just had his umbilical cord cut! He's got breast-latching tuition, circumcision, reflex checking and heel pricking ahead of him before he can even start thinking about casinos, yachts and media empires. Hornery, a social columnist with an eye for the absurd and a wry style, admitted yesterday it may have been a bit early to line the little tacker Jackson up to take the Packer reins from his towering relatives. "I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek, that's my style," he told Strewth. But the stylish reference was strangely absent from his afternoon web update.