Double standard stinks: Pauline Hanson

A secret report commissioned by the government in July 2019 ­recommended that Australia Post cut up to 8000 staff as part of a $680m redundancy cost-cutting drive.

Senator Pauline Hanson. Picture: Getty Images

A secret report commissioned by the government in July 2019 ­recommended that Australia Post cut up to 8000 staff as part of a $680m redundancy cost-cutting drive.

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson, who revealed excerpts of the $1.3m Boston Consulting Group report on Sunday, said the redundancy figure was at the heart of Christine Holgate’s opposition to the report.

“Christine Holgate told me the cost of redundancies ($680m) would equate to 8000 jobs,” Senator Hanson told The Australian.

“If the Prime Minister wants to whinge and complain about taxpayer dollars, what does he spend through his office on buying presents for everyone else?

“There’s a double standard here — I don’t like it, and I think it stinks.”

On Tuesday, Ms Holgate told a Senate inquiry examining her departure from Australia Post that her opposition to the BCG report was a key reason for her ousting.

“(The BCG review) would have ravaged jobs and the services that Australia Post ­offers. I objected rigorously to the BCG recommendations, and I still do,” she said.

“It is completely the wrong strategy for Australia Post to its customers, to the teams and to the communities.”

The BCG report was commissioned by the government in July 2019 to coincide with the appointment of incoming chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo.

It made five key recommendations around cost-cutting and potential privatisation, including fewer letter deliveries and scrapping priority mail.

The recommendations super­seded existing cost-cutting plans from Ms Holgate that would have seen StarTrack offer cold chain distribution and posties carry more parcels.

She said implementation of the BCG review would have led to the closure of 190 post offices, putting thousands of people out of work.

“The BCG review did not support management’s view of having a strategy to grow the business or remaining sustainable by leveraging our infrastructure to carry parcels and letters while building new ser­vices, including extending ­financial services,” Ms Holgate said.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the government did not have plans to partially privatise Australia Post or sell off the parcels bus­iness.

“Australia Post is a government business enterprise, 100 per cent owned by the government. That will not change,” he told Sky News.

Ms Holgate also claimed her plan to transform Australia Post, which she drafted in May 2018, about six months into her three-year tenure, was deemed to be “too optimistic and risky” even though business was ahead of its targets for the year.