Senate Inquiry: ‘Christine Holgate still Australia Post boss if I was in charge’, says Tony Nutt
Australia Post board member and ex-Liberal Party director says Christine Holgate was an ‘outstanding’ CEO, with a key flaw.
Former Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt says Australia Post executives would never have received Cartier watches and ex-chief executive Christine Holgate would still be in her job if he were “running the show” on the post office board.
Mr Nutt’s comments came as a war of words broke out between Ms Holgate and Australia Post chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo over mediation talks, with the former post chief threatening to sue her former employers if they did not come to the table this week.
Mr Nutt — Malcolm Turnbull’s party director and a former top official in John Howard’s office — has been thrown into the centre of Ms Holgate’s downfall at Australia Post after she said at a Senate hearing last month he was the first person to advise her to stand aside after Scott Morrison denounced her in parliament over the purchase of the Cartier watches.
Mr Nutt told a Senate inquiry on Monday that Ms Holgate was an “outstanding” chief of Australia Post but she did not give full answers on her purchase of the watches and should have had a “greater understanding” of the postal service’s regulatory framework. “This episode has now morphed, at least in part, into high farce. Straightforward facts, events and actions have been distorted,” he told the inquiry.
“I was not a substitute for the chair, or for the full board. I was not making decisions. I was, however, able to give Ms Holgate support and counsel. If I had been directing events, the Cartier watches wouldn’t have been bought 2½ years ago.
“Further, Miss Holgate –— an otherwise intelligent, articulate and effective interlocutor with the parliament in general and Senate estimates in particular — wouldn’t have given Senator (Kimberley) Kitching a partial answer to questions about the watches.
“By ignoring the short-term politics and the increasingly inaccurate, on occasion completely false, and sometimes rather vile commentary … Ms Holgate would be the CEO today.”
Labor has tried in recent weeks to tie Mr Nutt and several other Australia Post board members linked to the Coalition to the downfall of Ms Holgate.
Mr Nutt denied he received any order from anyone in the Morrison government over how to handle Ms Holgate when it was revealed she had purchased watches for top executives in 2018 as rewards for securing a major deal.
“No one from government was ringing me, or giving me instructions or anything like that,” Mr Nutt said. “The call with the staff member of (Communications) Minister (Paul) Fletcher’s office was purely mechanical: there was no such discussion … prior to question time.”
Ahead of the Senate hearing on Monday, Ms Holgate’s legal representative, Rebekah Giles, said in a statement the government and the board had until 5pm on Wednesday to agree to mediation talks with Ms Holgate. If Australia Post and the Morrison government did not agree to mediation by then, she would consider legal options.
Ms Holgate has claimed she was unlawfully stood down over the purchase of $20,000 worth of Cartier watches and she was bullied by both Mr Di Bartolomeo and the Prime Minister.
“We have been advised the government requires more time to consider the offer to mediate and Australia Post will not be able to meet the deadline,” the statement from her representatives said.
“It is very disappointing to Ms Holgate that it appears neither the government nor Australia Post have been able to prioritise an amicable resolution of this matter, particularly as they are very aware of the ongoing damage this matter causes my client and in light of the fact that it took them only hours to unlawfully stand her down.”
Mr Di Bartolomeo on Monday accused Ms Holgate and her lawyers of being “very cute” over her threats to sue her former employers over her departure.
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