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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Six months ago the chief executive of Australia Post, Christine Holgate, was pushed out of her job for handing out Cartier watches as bonuses to her staff. This week, she broke her silence on that episode - claiming that she was bullied, and that the real reason she was targeted was because of a secret plan to privatise the postal service.
Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno, on what happened really happened at Australia Post.

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RUBY:

Paul, this week the Federal Senate held an enquiry into the ousting of Christine Holgate, who is the former CEO of Australia Post. Can you tell me about what we learnt from that enquiry? What was the takeaway?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, the expression goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. And six months after she says she was humiliated by the Prime Minister and bullied by Australia Post Chairman, Christine Holgate gave ice-cold vent to her fury. But while the media reporting of this enquiry into the former chief executive of the nation's mail service honed in on allegations of gender discrimination, it was far from the whole story. What actually emerged was a hidden agenda from the government to dismantle Australia Post. Holgate supporters now see her as something of a Joan of Arc, the heroine prepared to thwart the government's plan.

RUBY:

Right. OK, so a bit going on here, Paul, but let's go back to when Christine Holgate actually left her role. She resigned, didn't she? So what are the allegations that she's making against Scott Morrison now?

PAUL:

Yeah, well, off the bat, Ruby, she is adamant she didn't resign but was illegally stood down and sacked, and is giving indications she may well take legal action. It goes back to October last year when Holgate was appearing before a different Senate enquiry.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“There were a small number of senior people who'd put an inordinate amount of work in. And they did receive an award from the chair myself and on behalf of the board.”

Archival Tape -- Unidentified Speaker:

“And what was that award?”

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“They got watches.”

PAUL:

She revealed that Australia Post had purchased four Cartier watches, collectively valued at 20,000 dollars for senior executives who secured a lucrative deal with three of the big banks.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“I have not used taxpayers' money. We are a commercial organisation. We do not have government funding. We are a commercial organisation…”

PAUL:

Well, that sparked a political outcry. And the Communications Minister, Paul Fletcher announced an investigation into Australia Post.

Archival Tape -- Paul Fletcher:

“I was as shocked and concerned as everybody else to discover this when it was revealed in estimates this morning.”

PAUL:

He also asked Holgate to step aside as CEO.

Archival Tape -- Paul Fletcher:

“And I've also asked the chair to inform the Chief Executive that she will be asked to stand aside during the course of this investigation…”

PAUL:

During Question Time in the House of Representatives that same day, a fuming Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that if Holgate wished not to stand aside, then he bellowed...

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

She can go!

PAUL:

10 days later, the Australia Post board produced a disputed resignation letter ending Holgate’s job.

RUBY:

OK, and so what did Holgate tell the parliament this week then about her departure? What is she saying about it all?

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“And thank you, Senators, for the opportunity to be here today. I have committed to be part of this process. I do not want what's happened to me to happen to any individual ever again in any workplace.”

PAUL:

On Tuesday morning, Ruby, in an opening statement to the Senate committee examining the issue, she said the choice to leave was not her own.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“I had not agreed to stand down. I had provided comprehensive written proof to support these statements to Australia Post and its chairman…”

PAUL:

And she went on to say, I was humiliated and driven to despair.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“I was subjected to a biased investigation and intimidated with constant threats of further allegations and criticism. Throughout this time, my health had deteriorated to the point where I could not find my voice to fight back.”

PAUL:

Holgate told the inquiry that she believed the chair of Australia Post should resign and accused him of misleading the parliament and lying to the government.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“Suffice to say, if it was not for this committee, Australia Post chairman would likely have succeeded in getting away with lying to the Australian people, to their Senate, to the employees and partners of Australia Post. Not least would he ever been held to account for the bullying of myself.”

PAUL:

But she also took aim at Scott Morrison. She said Morrison's words were humiliating, as she put it ‘I was hung in parliament, humiliated. Well, not just hung, run over by a bus and reversed again’.

RUBY:

Ok, so she thinks both the Prime Minister and the Chair of Australia Post were targeting her, but why does she think that was the case?

PAUL:

Well, according to Christine Holgate, it goes much deeper than the Cartier watches that she gifted out. She'd made herself, she said, unpopular with the government and the company's board by opposing an idea to privatise Australia Post parcel services, a move she said would cost thousands of jobs. And she says that's the real reason they wanted her gone.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Paul, what evidence is there for the suggestion made by Christine Holgate that the real reason that the Prime Minister and the chair of Australia Post wanted her gone was her opposition to the privatisation of the organisation?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, during her testimony to the Senate enquiry this week, Holgate brought up an analysis produced by the Boston Consulting Group, apparently to facilitate the sale.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“Senator, I actually think the implications are worse than what you think. If you don't mind…”

PAUL:

The report, according to the passages she quoted in her submission, recommended up to 8,000 job cuts at Australia Post, closing 190 post offices and a reduction in services.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“If the government makes arbitrary decisions that impact the community post offices, they do not have to deal with the debt, the mum and dads do.”

PAUL:

That report outlined what the government was hoping to do, according to Holgate, but she opposed those recommendations in her view. She thought her task as CEO of Australia Post was to put the business in better shape and grow the company, not cut it back.

Archival Tape -- Christine Holgate:

“The letters business was one point eight billion dollars last year, and yet we are just disregarding it. It is still a really important asset, particularly for small businesses.”

PAUL:

But what ended up happening - what the government did under the cover of the pandemic - well, it began implementing some of the report's strategies. It introduced emergency regulations that cut back on postal services, including priority mail services important to small business. And it also fed the narrative that a government owned postal service was an expensive and inefficient dinosaur. And, Ruby, stories began appearing in the media about the expenses extravagance of Holgate and her executives that led to the Cartier watch saga and Holgate's eventual demise.

RUBY:

And so what is Scott Morrison saying about all of this poll? What's his response been both to the criticism of his treatment of Holgate and also these claims that he was planning to sell off parts of Australia Post?

PAUL:

At his first news conference, Ruby, the day after Holgate's excoriating evidence the media pack, didn't ask the prime minister about her resistance to the dismantling and sale of Australia Post. Instead, the focus was on the gendered aspects of her predicament, which, of course relates to the disastrous situation the government's been in ever since the Britney Higgins sexual assault allegations, now, almost two months ago.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“The position was that Miss Holgate, Christine Holgate, would be able to stand aside while that review took place. She chose not just to do that, she chose ultimately, while the review was underway, to resign from the company, that that was a matter between her and the chairman…”

PAUL:

Morrison, while he denied that he sacked Holgate from the bully pulpit of parliament. He's conveniently expunged from his memory that he bellowed ‘she can go.’ He says it was a willing day in parliament, but it wasn't his intention to cause distress.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison:

“Parliament can get very willing. And on that occasion, my language was very strong. And...and I do regret any...the distress that that would have caused to miss Holgate…”

PAUL:

Saying he regretted any distress caused to her was as close to an apology as he got.

RUBY:

And so what has the political fallout been so far then, Paul? Presumably, Labor would be critical of any plan to privatise Australia Post...

PAUL:

Well, indeed, Labour's communications spokesperson Michelle Rowland says Labour is certainly opposed to privatisation and the government's intentions with Australia Post have been exposed, something Communications Minister Paul Fletcher on Wednesday quickly tried to deny. Fletcher says the government has no intention of selling Australia Post. Well, maybe not for a while now, but there's an element of irony to all of this, Ruby. It was a Labour senator, Kimberley Kitching, who first raised the gifts in estimates last year, and her leader, Anthony Albanese, jumped on the bandwagon, echoing the sentiment that Holgate showed poor judgement and her position was untenable.

RUBY:

And I think that goes to why this story is so curious, Paul, because we had this situation last October where it did seem like there was this consensus on both sides of politics that Christine Holgate should not be handing out Cartier watches and should probably go, but now a few months later, the entire issue has been reframed and and Holgate has said she's been bullied and now it's about Australia Post being privatised. So how has this flip happened?

PAUL:

Two significant developments, Ruby. The first is an investigation by Medic's lawyers that found Holgate had acted within her rights and had not breached company protocols. In fact, she could have given cash bonuses up to 150, 000 dollars if she chose. The other major sea change is the tsunami of controversy over misogyny and discrimination against women in politics unleashed by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins. And it has to be said, exacerbated by historic rape allegations against Cabinet Minister Christian Porter, though he denies them.

RUBY:

Hmm. And so, Paul, what happens next with this story? When will the Senate enquiry into Holgate and Australia Post hand down a report? And when it does, what do you think will happen?

PAUL:

Well, the enquiry is continuing, and if it substantially finds in favour of Holgate - as all the signs are, it will - it can only lead to further embarrassment for Scott Morrison and the government. And not to be ruled out, as I say, is a high profile legal action against the Australia Post chairman Luco Bartolomeo and the so-called shareholder ministers, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher. As well, the whole affair has sparked a backlash amongst hundreds of licensees running post offices around regional Australia. And that's a worry, particularly for the Nationals, just ask Barnaby Joyce and Senator Bridget McKenzie.

RUBY:

Paul, thank you so much for your time today.

PAUL:

Thanks, Ruby. Good to chat again.

RUBY:

Bye

PAUL:

Bye

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…
The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has announced that the 80 remaining Australian soldiers in Afghanistan will be withdrawn later this year. The announcement is in line with the departure of US troops, announced by President Joe Biden. More than 39,000 Australians were deployed and 41 of them were killed during the decades-long conflict.

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. It’s produced by Ruby Schwartz, Elle Marsh, Atticus Bastow, Michelle Macklem, and Cinnamon Nippard.

Brian Campeau mixes the show. Our editor is Osman Faruqi. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.
Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

New episodes of 7am are released every weekday morning. Follow in your favourite podcast app, to make sure you don’t miss out.

I’m Ruby Jones - have a great weekend, and see you Monday!

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