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The former Australia Post boss has told a Senate Committee she was 'Humiliated' & pushed out of her job as CEO unwillingly by the company's chair over a decision to gift Cartier watches to staff.

Source : PortMac.News | Independent :

Source : PortMac.News | Independent | News Story:

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Christine Holgate 'humiliated' & pushed out of top post job
The former Australia Post boss has told a Senate Committee she was 'Humiliated' & pushed out of her job as CEO unwillingly by the company's chair over a decision to gift Cartier watches to staff.

News Story Summary:

Christine Holgate stepped aside as CEO of the company late last year after she revealed at a different hearing that she had given four staff members the luxury watches in 2018 as thanks for securing a lucrative deal.

Ms Holgate said this morning in an opening statement to the committee the choice to leave was not her own and she was illegally forced to step aside.

"The simple truth is, I was bullied out of my job," she said.

"I was humiliated and driven to despair. I was thrown under the bus so the chairman of Australia Post could curry favour with his political masters.

"But I'm still here and I'm stronger for surviving it."

Ms Holgate said the controversy that unfolded in the wake of her original evidence was "hell" and left her "suicidal" and on medication for her mental health.

She told the inquiry she believed the chair should resign, and accused him of misleading the Parliament and lying to the government.

Australia Post Chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo has rejected Ms Holgate's claims, saying in a statement last week she had agreed to stand aside.

The watches were worth on average just under $5,000 each.

Ms Holgate told the inquiry she was entitled, as CEO, to give the four people bonuses of up to $150,000 each which she decided against in favour of the Cartier gifts in 2018.

Asked, in hindsight, if she would have gifted the watches, Ms Holgate joked that she may have considered buying a different brand.

"Whether I probably buy them a Seiko watch in future, probably, but am I proud of the moment that I gave those people recognition for working 24 hours a day? I think that is what you would want your CEO to do," she said.

"They were actually, probably, the cheapest four watches of Cartier they had, they were just different ones. I am sorry guys [who] received them, it wasn't about the value it was about the recognition." 

Shortly after Ms Holgate spoke about the watches, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stood up in Parliament and said it did not pass the "pub test" and she should be immediately stood aside or "go".

"The pub test I was being judged against was handing out gold watches in the middle of a crisis, that's not what happened," she said.

She said she did not know why the Prime Minister made the comment but that she believed she was forced to stand aside because Mr Morrison "instructed" it.

Today Ms Holgate told the committee neither the Prime Minister or Communications Minister Paul Fletcher had contacted her since the incident.

"I was hung in Parliament, humiliated, not just hung, run over by a bus and reversed again," she said.

Ms Holgate said she was honoured to be at the helm of the company and "devastated" to have to leave it.

Partly a gender issue, Holgate says

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young suggested to Ms Holgate that there was a "stark difference" between the Prime Minister's response to her compared to his reaction to allegations levelled against some of his colleagues.

Ms Holgate agreed and pointed to a Four Corners report from last year that focused on Cabinet ministers Alan Tudge and Christian Porter.

"Following that program the Prime Minister was asked about the behaviour of two of his ministers, his response was 'it was two years ago'," she told the inquiry.

"I gave four watches in reward to people who brought an incredible contribution to Australia Post two years ago, that was never shared."

Ms Holgate was also asked whether she thought the way she was treated had anything to do with her being a woman.

"So do I believe it's partially a gender issue? You're absolutely right I do," she said.

"But do I believe the real problem here is bullying and harassment and abuse of power? You're absolutely right I do."

The former CEO, as well as two other senior women supporting her and also giving evidence at the inquiry, wore white at the hearing as a nod to the suffragette movement.

Story By | Georgia Hitch & Stephanie Borys


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