The Prime Minister demanding that the CEO of Australia Post, Christine Holgate, stand down pending an investigation over the purchase of four $3,000 watches for executives as bonuses for a 2018 deal done worth in excess of $60m highlights all the contradictions and hypocrisy in modern political life.
And keep in mind the deal done, which led to the watches being purchased was with three of the four big banks, wherein Holgate extracted terms that really did screw over the banks – a KPI politicians love to work towards.
Scott Morrison likes to attack Labor for pulling the class war card, or using the politics of envy. But is there a more clear cut example of a PM using populism to his advantage than this move? Probably, but watchgate is right up there. Thundering to the parliament that if she won’t stand down voluntarily the PM will force her to step down.
His standards are that high. His virtue beyond question.
Yes, when you run a public enterprise any CEO needs to be careful, and Holgate clearly was not. The Cartier brand is synonymous with decadence, making her decision to buy four of their cheapest watches an easy target for Labor and the government. I’m surprised Cartier sells watches that cheap frankly. Had she simply given each of the executives a cash bonus twice that amount for the deal done, nobody would have batted an eyelid. Their annual bonuses would be well in excess of that sum anyway.
The former CEO of Blackmores was a star in that role before moving to Australia Post, delivering record profits and performance. And since taking over Australia Post she has done exactly what she was asked to do: turned around the financial fortunes of the enterprise.
But the shareholders are still the taxpayers, and like it or not that means her shareholder activists are the likes of Morrison, the ultimate populist willing to pull any lever in the name of political advantage. And keep in mind Liberals had an issue with her appointment from day one.
Once Labor went after Holgate in Senate Estimates, there was no way Morrison was going to stand by her. It’s not his style. Never mind her strong performance in the role.
Yet it is the Liberal Party that is supposed to champion the idea of public assets like Australia Post being run as commercial enterprises, so they don’t remain as slow, unwieldy and inefficient as the public service. Clearly selective amnesia applies when it comes to that ideological goal.
Equally, if the PM really is worried about taxpayers’ dollars being wasted, and the need for accountability when it is, he should be able to find far bigger examples of where that has happened and no heads have rolled. All within the ranks of his government.
Have any heads rolled or anyone been stood down for the $30m land sale attached to Sydney’s second airport? The land was formally valued at $3m, just happened to be owned by a Liberal Party donor, and was sold for ten times that amount. No, of course not.
What about the research funding for the Great Barrier Reef that exceeded $400m, given to a company with little by way of a track record engaging in such work? No tender process either. Was that value for money? Have any heads rolled there? Of course not.
I seem to recall a few question marks surrounding water buybacks along the Murray Darling river worth tens of millions of dollars; any heads rolled on that issue? That would be a no.
Then of course we have the sports rorts saga, where the minister only resigned over a technicality and little has changed in the dodgy processes of allocating funds in a way the Auditor General found to be deeply inappropriate.
Throw in businesses that qualified for JobKeeper and used that taxpayers’ money to pay out massive bonuses and increase their profitability, all because the scheme was badly designed. Any accountability inside government for that incredibly expensive error? Nope, in fact they actually think they’ve done well in the crafting of that policy.
At one level it’s hard not to admire the political willingness of Morrison to play his politics so hard, and lean in to hypocrisy so willingly. And surveying those around him, one time self- believing lions have become lambs, submitting to whatever the PM wants. They don’t dare cross the populist PM. It’s working for him politically, in that Morrison is able to rebuff Labor attacks and appear like a champion of the mainstream. Feeding the politics of envy amongst Australians who don’t think corporate types deserve the salaries they earn.
Backbenchers and ministers feel that way too, which is why when they finish their political careers they clamour for jobs in the corporate sector, usually hired for little more than their connections in politicians. Suddenly shifting from populists to rent seekers.
Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.
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