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PM regrets distress caused by his ‘strong language’ about Holgate, but no apology
By Lisa Visentin
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to apologise to Christine Holgate after she accused him of bullying her out of a job as the first female chief of Australia Post.
Mr Morrison said he regretted the hurt he caused Ms Holgate when, in a speech to Parliament in October, he slammed her decision to reward four senior employees with Cartier watches worth a total of $20,000 for securing a major banking deal. But he stopped short of acceding to her request for an apology, as he defended his “strong language”.
Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate says she’d “love an apology” from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen/Dominic Lorrimer
“It was not my intention to cause distress to Ms Holgate and I regret any distress that that strong language may have caused to her and indeed did cause to her. That was not my intention,” Mr Morrison said.
He rejected Ms Holgate’s claim her gender was a factor in her treatment, saying his response in Parliament was designed to counter Labor’s attacks that his government condoned the Cartier gifts.
“This was about taxpayer organisations handing out Cartier watches to well-paid executives. This has nothing to do with gender,” Mr Morrison said.
In an October question time, Mr Morrison declared he was “appalled” by Ms Holgate’s actions and said she could “go” from Australia Post if she refused to stand aside for an inquiry into the gifts.
He said he remained of the view that Cartier gifts were inappropriate, but he dismissed suggestions his comments ended her career, saying she resigned of her own volition before an inquiry was completed.
“If she chose to work through the [inquiry] process, she could have chosen to do that. Instead, she chose to resign from the organisation. That’s a matter between her and the Australia Post board,” he said.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who condemned Ms Holgate’s actions at the time and said he supported her “paying a price”, has since scrambled to reframe Labor’s position on the saga.
On Wednesday, he defended his declaration in October that Ms Holgate’s position was “untenable”, saying the Prime Minister’s comments had made it so.
“He effectively sacked Christine Holgate on the floor of the Parliament,” Mr Albanese said. “After that answer, of course, how could she continue?”
Ms Holgate appealed for an apology from Mr Morrison in a flurry of media appearances after she tore into the government and Australia Post for almost three hours at a Senate inquiry into the Cartier watches saga on Tuesday.
“You know, everybody makes mistakes sometimes. If he was to call me and apologise, I would welcome that apology. That’s all I want. It’s all the people have wanted. We just want respect. We just want a stop to bullying and humiliation,” Ms Holgate told Channel Nine’s Today show on Wednesday.
Ms Holgate said she decided to speak publicly about the toll it took on her mental health in a bid to highlight the impact of workplace bullying.
“I was suicidal. I don’t like sharing that but it’s the truth and I think sometimes you do have to talk about that pain because you’ve got to be open about it to stop these things happening,” she told Channel 7’s Sunrise program.
She broke her silence on the saga on Tuesday, telling a Senate inquiry that she was left contemplating suicide as a result of the bullying and intimidation she endured through the ordeal. She said Mr Morrison played a key role in her downfall, accusing him of humiliating her in the Parliament.
“I lost a job – a job I loved – because I was humiliated by our Prime Minister for committing no offence and then bullied by my chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo, who unlawfully stood me down under public direction of the Prime Minister,” Ms Holgate told the hearing.
“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.”
In an interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday evening, Ms Holgate described Mr Morrison’s rebuke of her actions as “one of the worst acts of bullying I’ve ever witnessed” and said she’d “love an apology”. She also revealed she was contemplating legal action against Australia Post over the ongoing dispute around the finalisation of her contract.
Ms Holgate has repeatedly justified the watches on the grounds it was important to recognise the hard work of the employees in securing the landmark banking deal.
“Perhaps next time I won’t buy someone a Cartier watch but let me tell you something - I never want to stop rewarding and recognising brilliance in my people,” she told Today.
Mr Di Bartolomeo also gave evidence on Tuesday, rejecting many of Ms Holgate’s accusations and insisting she agreed to stand aside and was provided with extensive support throughout the ordeal. He conceded Ms Holgate had been treated “abysmally”, but said the board and management had supported her through the ordeal.
“I don’t believe Australia Post owes her an apology, no. But I do believe she was badly treated,” he said.
He attributed this poor treatment to the political and media frenzy that engulfed Ms Holgate on October 22, when both the Coalition and Labor condemned the watches purchases.
“The environment that was created at the time — from that afternoon on through Parliament and the media thereafter, and everyone else who bought in — created a set of circumstances that made her job, her life very difficult,” Mr Di Bartolomeo said.
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