PM Scott Morrison hides the report that clears Christine Holgate

A report we’re not allowed to see utterly damns the government and Australia Post’s board and chairman, writes Terry McCrann.

Former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate during Senate estimates in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

THE position of Australia Post chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo is now utterly – utterly – unsustainable. He must resign immediately or be sacked immediately.

Even if that means – in stunning irony – he is sacked by this government for doing exactly what this government and this Prime Minister demanded he do.

But being an obedient lapdog cannot excuse his unfitness to continue as the chairman of a major company like AusPost.

He has now been undeniably exposed as allowing the PM, Scott Morrison, to have forced the effective sacking of AusPost’s former and very effective CEO, Christine Holgate, completely inappropriately without a shred of justification.

 AusPost was therefore deprived of its very effective CEO precisely as AusPost was about to enter what even he said was the “most challenging period in the history of the organisation”.

Australia Post chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo. Picture: Supplied via NCA NewsWire

As I wrote two months ago, when this ludicrous, totally over-inflated saga of “the CEO and the four Cartier watches” exploded into public, the previously all but invisible Di Bartolomeo showed immediately he was not up to the job of chairing a major corporation.

He demonstrated zero understanding of the role and responsibilities of a company chairman in general and of a publicly-owned business operation like AusPost in particular, which operates under specific and detailed legislation.  As a consequence, he failed to discharge those responsibilities; he failed AusPost and he has failed its owners — who were and remain the Australian people and not someone called Scott Morrison.

Indeed, as I wrote back then, the way Di Bartolomeo allowed the PM to improperly hound Holgate out of AusPost was appalling. He had a statutory – legal – duty not to take orders from the PM; instead he acted on the PM’s orders immediately.

And now his failure – and that indeed of the PM personally but also communications minister Paul Fletcher – has been exposed by the report (demanded by a very stupid PM himself) into the watches saga.

Well, actually not really exposed – as the report has very deliberately not been made public by the government; for obvious reasons as it utterly, if indirectly, damns both government and PM, and the AusPost board and chairman.

But its contents and conclusions HAVE been revealed by my colleague on The Australian, Robert Gottliebsen.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher. Picture by Sean Davey.

They are, simply and in sum, Holgate acted fully (and moderately) in accord with the rules and her executive discretion in awarding the four $5000 watches to four executives (two years ago) for winning a contract that injected $66m into AusPost and secured a critical revenue stream for the 3000 franchisees that actually run post offices.

Minister Fletcher has had the independent report by solicitors Maddocks – which exonerated Holgate – for over a month.

That in itself was stunningly telling: do you think if this government had got a report which backed its hysterical PM and nailed Holgate, it would not have released or leaked it within the hour?

Refusing now to release it – will we even see it in 30 years under the cabinet disclosure rules? – is completely unacceptable.

The PM was ranting about Holgate’s “waste” of public money over the $20,000. This report, which cost much more than that, was paid for by taxpayers.

The owners of AusPost are those same taxpayers. They are entitled to read the report they paid for.

 The other directors of AusPost are similarly condemned as their chairman. They all endorsed his behaviour which inappropriately cost AusPost its CEO. Not one of them registered any opposition.

They have all shown themselves to be unfit to continue as directors.