Look how quickly Morrison apologised to Murdoch’s machine—demand he also apologise to Christine Holgate!

Call Scott Morrison’s office and add your comment on Scott Morrison’s Facebook apology to demand he apologise to Christine Holgate and reinstate her as CEO.

Given Prime Minister Scott Morrison so quickly apologised to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp machine for raising a false allegation about an incident at Sky News, if he wants to be taken as genuine he must also apologise to Christine Holgate for his entirely unjustified character assassination of her that has ruined her career and totally destabilised Australia Post.

And then he must instruct his Ministers to direct the Board to reinstate her as CEO.

Click here to go to Scott Morrison’s Facebook apology to News Corp to leave your message; or call his office in Parliament House on 02 6277 7700.

Up until now too many politicians and media hacks have accepted Christine Holgate’s fate as simply the swings and roundabouts of politics; they say that after Morrison’s attack on her, he would lose face if she got her job back, so it won’t happen.

Australians should stop tolerating this kind of politics. The bottom line is Christine Holgate did absolutely nothing wrong, as Morrison’s own inquiry by Maddocks Lawyers revealed (despite trying to contrive a token finding against her). In fact, her purchase of four Cartier watches in 2018, to reward executives who had worked “nights, weekends and holidays” on a project that was not “their job”, but a special initiative to transform the fortunes of Australia Post by making the banks pay properly for post offices serving their customers, was more than justified—it was brilliant management. She didn’t waste “taxpayers’ money”, she saved taxpayers’ money, she saved the taxpayers’ national asset Australia Post, and she earned taxpayers millions more in revenue through her initiative. Yet, based on false and incomplete information the PM chose to go on a tirade in Parliament against Christine Holgate personally, raging that he was “appalled” by her “disgraceful” action and assassinating her character in front of the entire nation.

The PM’s confected outrage and condemnation of Christine Holgate on that day was so hyperbolic and so over the top, he has been unable to match it for either tone or emotion when subsequent revelations have forced him to condemn genuinely disgraceful sexual assaults and debauchery in Parliament House. In his press conference yesterday (23 March), he could only describe himself as “shocked and disgusted” by the revelations of lewd and degrading sexual debauchery in Parliament House, also targeted at women. But then, because he went on to use incorrect information to take a swipe at Sky News, he quickly apologised to News Corp and the people involved in the incident he cited, saying “the emotion of the moment is no excuse”.

Well, neither was your faked emotion on 22 October an excuse, Prime Minister—where is your apology to Christine Holgate?

(Before the Labor Party gets self-righteous over this, they too should apologise to Christine Holgate, because they instigated the attack on her on 22 October, fully prepared to destroy a successful female CEO and risk the future of Australia Post in order to play their political games. Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching ambushed Christine Holgate in Senate Estimates over watches purchased two years earlier; then Labor leader Anthony Albanese formulated a dishonest question for the Prime Minister to make it sound like the watches were purchased “in the middle of the worst recession in almost a century, with one million Australians unemployed, businesses collapsing and a trillion dollars of Liberal debt”—this was the question that sent Morrison on his tirade. Labor love talking about the treatment of women, but they have done nothing to acknowledge their role in the character assassination of Australia’s most successful female CEO, nor have they taken steps to rectify it.)

Disarray

The dire consequences of Scott Morrison’s treatment of Christine Holgate, which set in train the events that saw her unlawfully removed as CEO of Australia Post, were on display in Parliament yesterday when the current management of Australia Post appeared before Senate Estimates.

Australia Post is in disarray. It has returned to the service cuts that Christine Holgate opposed, such as ending the transportation of perishable food, which has thrown small business customers that use Australia Post to transport artisan foodstuffs around Australia into chaos.

Moreover, Australia Post management has had to implement 32 recommendations arising from the government’s inquiry into the Cartier watches, most pathetically by scrapping the CEO’s corporate credit card. In other words, because the Labor Party and Scott Morrison made a mountain out of a molehill—and not even a molehill, really a non-issue—we now have a situation where the CEO we entrust to run a $7 billion government business enterprise will not be trusted to put incidental expenses on a corporate credit card! As a result of such ridiculous overreactions, Australia Post management is reportedly paralysed, fearful of the consequences of making even the most basic decisions. The organisation is a pale shell of its former self under Christine Holgate’s successful leadership, to the detriment of all Australians, especially the longsuffering licensed post offices whose fortunes she transformed through her Bank@Post deal, but who are once again at the mercy of small-minded management too intent on covering their butts to act for the welfare of the entire organisation.

The responsibility for all of this lies with the Prime Minister and his confected, unjustified outrage against Christine Holgate on 22 October. If he can crawl to Murdoch’s media machine so quickly to apologise, demand he apologise to Christine Holgate for his attack on her and Australia Post.

Hit him hard on this today! Click here to go to Scott Morrison’s Facebook apology to News Corp to leave your message; or call his office in Parliament House on 02 6277 7700.