Australia Post ex-boss claims she was humiliated by Prime Minister

Christine Holgate has dropped a letter bomb on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, saying she felt “bullied, humiliated and suicidal” when driven out of her job as Australia Post CEO.

Australia Post’s former CEO Christine Holgate has delivered a broadside against the organisation and the Prime Minister, telling a Senate inquiry Tuesday that she has done no wrong and once again opening up questions about how women are treated by the government.

“I don’t know why the Prime Minister did what he did,” Ms Holgate told a Senate committee Tuesday.

“I lost my job, a job that I loved, because I was humiliated by the Prime Minister, committing no offence, and then bullied by my chairman,” she said.

Former CEO of Australia Post Christine Holgate during a Public Hearing at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Ms Holgate also told of how she was considering self-harm as a result of her treatment and was taking tranquillisers.

Asked by Senator Pauline Hanson about her attempts to make contact with the Prime Minister as well as Communications Minister Paul Fletcher and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, Ms Holgate said she attempted to make contact via email but that the correspondence was “rambling” because “I was seriously Ill, I was on temazepam.”

“I was suicidal, you know? That’s why it was rambling.”

“I wrote to him and said surely now that you’re Minister Finance, Minister of trade and head of the Senate, you will help me get a resolution and stop what’s happening to me. I honoured everything, Senator Hanson, they asked me to do. I just asked to be treated with respect.”

Ms Holgate quit as Australia Post chief executive officer in October after revelations senior executives had been given expensive Cartier watches, but has since been cleared of misleading or misusing taxpayer funds.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison in October declared the watches “disgraceful” and said Ms Holgate had been instructed to stand aside.

“I don’t know why the Prime Minister did what he did,” Ms Holgate said today.

Ms Holgate said she did not know why the Prime Minister made that intervention, but said it made her position untenable.

“The simple truth is, I was pulled out of my job. I was humiliated and driven to despair. I was thrown under the bus ... But I’m still here.”

“And I was devastated to be driven out of it, but its employees, delivery partners and community post services will always have a stamp on my heart. I have said consistently since October the 22nd that I have done nothing wrong. I had not agreed to stand down.”

‘I was humiliated and driven to despair’, Ms Holgate told the public hearing.

Ms Holgate also suggested that she was treated differently by the government because she was a woman, pointing out that parliamentarians had been accused of worse behaviour but remained in their posts.

“I think it would be fair to say I’ve never seen a media article comment about a male politican’s watch ... I was depicted as a prostitute. Do I believe it’s partially a gender issue?You’re absolutely right.”

Ms Holgate said she was “humiliated” by Mr Morrison and chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo who “unlawfully stood me down”.

“This made my leadership at Australia Post untenable and seriously threatened my health. I

have done no wrong. Their bullying of me was far from over. I was subjected to a biased investigation and intimidated with constant threats of further allegations and criticism.”

Originally published as Australia Post ex-boss claims she was humiliated by Prime Minister