The polite term may be “stepping aside” pending an investigation. Political reality is much blunter. James Shipton is finished as head of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Christine Holgate’s tenure as a highly successful head of Australia Post is now terminal.

The two cases involve very different circumstances. At Australia Post, it’s as much about the potency of symbolism as any use of taxpayers’ money. So the $20,000 worth of four Cartier watches as executive gifts approved by Holgate and then chairman John Stanhope will miraculously end up more infamous than the many millions of dollars in annual bonuses Stanhope and his board gifted Holgate’s predecessor, Ahmed Fahour.