Under investigation Christine Holgate to net $110,000 on leave

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate at Senate estimates in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Australia Post will pay suspended chief executive Christine Holgate almost $110,000 as Scott Morrison’s Federal Government conducts a month-long investigation into her lavish gift of Cartier watches worth $12,000 to key senior managers.

A spokesman for Post chair Lucio Di Bortolomeo confirmed to Margin Call that the stood aside Post boss, who is one of Australia’s highest paid public servants, would continue to be paid her normal salary as the inquiry into her corporate largesse unfolded.

According to Aussie Post’s just released annual report, Holgate is paid a base salary of $1.4 million, the equivalent of about $27,000-a-week.

The investigation into Holgate’s gift of four Cartier watches that cost $3,000 each to staff in October 2018 will be conducted by Paul Fletcher’s Department of Communications and Mathias Cormann’s Department of Finance.

An imminent Cabinet reshuffle to replace the retiring Cormann will lump the Aussie Post probe into the lap of a brand new minister.

On Thursday the government said the analysis of the circumstances around the lavish gifts would be supported by a yet-to-be-appointed external law firm.

The review will then report to Cabinet for a final decision on Holgate’s future. The scandal is the first major challenge for Post chair Di Bortolomeo, who has been in the role less than a year.

Illustration: Rod Clement

Post said late on Thursday that the government-owned $7.5 billion-a-year enterprise would be run by chief financial officer Rodney Boys while the watch inquiry unfolded.

Boys has been CFO at Post, which made a $43 million bottom-line profit last financial year and paid the Federal Government a $21 million dividend, since May last year. Before that Boys was an executive at listed industrial conglomerate Wesfarmers.

Boys appeared alongside Holgate at Thursday’s fateful Senate Estimates hearing where Labor Senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching extracted the revelation of Holgate’s generous rewards to her staff.

He was unable to tell the hearing which credit card had been used to buy the luxury timepieces, which were purchased about eight months after he joined the government enterprise.

Holgate told the hearing that her then chairman John Stanhope, a former executive at Telstra, had asked her to reward key staff for lucrative deals just struck with several of the big four banks.

Holgate couldn’t recall the make of the Cartier watches when asked — she seemingly prefers Bvlgari if her own watch at the hearing is anything to go by with a $48,000 price tag: roughly the equivalent to the average posties annual salary.

According to the Post annual report, Holgate is on a no fixed term contract and entitled to six months’ notice (or payment in lieu of that) should her employment be terminated. That would mean an effective payout of about $700,000.

However, her contract includes provisions for scenarios – including “improper conduct” – where no payout would be made.

Rectory vow of silence

The world wide web can make it so hard to disappear.

Earlier this week we revealed where disgraced former James Packer lieutenant and Crown Resorts chair Rob Rankin is likely to be hanging out as he seeks to avoid any accountability before Patricia Bergin’s take-no-prisoners inquiry into the gambling giant.

The Old Rectory in the Cotswolds, complete with heated pool, gym and walls full of impressive Aussie art, is the sort of country manor you might not mind bunking in until the corporate storm overhead passes over.

In ordinary times, The Old Rectory can be rented as a holiday stay, with bookings accessed via one of those luxury accommodation websites — a great way for a jetsetting businessman to monetise an idle asset.

The Old Rectory in the Cotswolds.

But overnight, The Old Rectory’s marketing site strangely disappeared from the net after it was revealed to Bergin’s inquiry into Crown’s suitability to run a casino in NSW that Rankin was refusing to appear before the former NSW judge either virtually or otherwise.

Former UBS and Deutsche banker Rankin said in correspondence he was in England and intended “to be in Europe for an extended period”.

Still, the controversial businessman will have matters to take care of here.

Rankin and wife Paula are selling a vacant block at Palm Beach, Sydney that they have on the market for $4m.

Since 2003 the couple have also owned and renovated the historic colonial mansion Woodlands in Woollahra, for which they paid $6.8m.

The home over time has been rented out to the likes of Aussie entertainer Hugh Jackman, music man Elton John and rich lister Ian Malouf.

If Rankin’s multimillion-dollar property portfolio doesn’t get him back, ASIC’s James Shipton just might.

Missing in action

In the end, he was just another voice in the mix.

Shareholders in the James Packer-controlled Crown Resorts didn’t even get to see exiting director and former executive chair John Alexander in person at what was the corporate hardman’s final board meeting on Thursday at the troubled gambling group.

Just his replacement as chair, Helen Coonan, and casino boss Ken Barton had their faces on show as Crown investors had the chance to grill the group amid what is the darkest period in the $5.8bn group’s corporate history.

Crown Resorts executive John Alexander.

Trust Packer man JA will endure as an exec at the company until the start of next year, to be paid $3.5m for the year, an effective golden goodbye as he sees out his notice period. Don’t expect him to be turning up at the office.

But then, JA never spent long at Crown’s Melbourne corporate headquarters anyway.

He was known for jetting in, staying a few hours, then heading back out again.

Margin Call recalls a Packer Family Foundation luncheon in August last year at Crown Melbourne attended by matriarch Ros Packer and her billionaire daughter Gretel Packer, along with Barton and a host of other senior Crown execs.

But JA was nowhere to be seen, instead, we hear, opting to stay upstairs in his room for the period of the gala celebration.

Imagine what the Packer women must have thought.

Final flies north

What a difference a year makes, particularly when you throw in a global pandemic.

Gillon McLachlan’s AFL grand final will for the first time ever be played outside Victoria. Premier Dan Andrews’ loss is his Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk’s enormous gain.

In a “normal” year, Margin Call would expect to see about 550 of Aussie rules’ most powerful and influential friends gathered for lunch in the MCG’s Olympic Room ahead of the match, but instead on Saturday it’ll be a much slimmed down crowd of about 250 in the Legends Room at the Gabba.

AFL Commission chair Richard Goyder will be a no-show, electing to stay in WA to watch the Cats take on the Tigers on billionaire Kerry Stokes’ Seven. Goyder’s CEO McLachlan will instead host the function, which will eschew the usual “business attire” in favour of a more casual approach. Very “Queensland”.

Australian musician Andrew Stockdale will be performing at the AFL grand final at the Gabba. Picture: Getty Images

With no Brisbane Lions in the premiership match and an election campaign on, Margin Call expects to see Palaszczuk in a normal seat with the punters rather than hobnobbing with McLachlan’s mob. We hear opposition leader Deb Frecklington might not be attending at all.

There’ll be no ScoMo or Albo either, with the Prime Minister’s industry minister and Member for the Queensland seat of McPherson, Karen Andrews, getting along as our leader’s rep.

Collingwood president and Nine talent Eddie McGuire, Geelong Cats president Colin Carter (hobbling around on a sore foot, apparently) and Aussie tennis champ and No 1 female Tiger ticket holder Ash Barty will all be there. If Damien Hardwick’s team wins, Barty will present the cup to the coach and his captain, Trent Cotchin.

AFL commissioners Andrew Newbold (also Golf Australia chair), Paul Bassat, who co-founded Seek, and Simone Wilkie, who is coming up from Canberra, will also be in for the game.

Queensland Governor Paul de Jersey and Palaszczuk minister Kate Jones are set to also be on board, along with the boss of Stokes’s Seven in the Sunshine State and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, who continues to fight other personal battles through the courts.

Tigers chief and HomeCo director Brendon Gale will also be there to watch his side, having been in the bubble for some time. However, his chair and financial services lawyer Peggy O’Neal will watch from her home in Tigerland.

Where else?