{"id":5222,"date":"2020-11-08T13:47:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T05:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=5222"},"modified":"2023-03-23T20:21:21","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:21:21","slug":"was-christine-holgate-the-victim-of-a-scott-morrison-special-the-stitch-up-ronni-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/was-christine-holgate-the-victim-of-a-scott-morrison-special-the-stitch-up-ronni-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Christine Holgate the victim of a Scott Morrison special – the stitch-up? – Ronni Salt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morale has soared since Holgate became CEO, with Australia Post’s<\/span> net promoter score jumping by more than 30 per cent<\/a><\/span> in six months.<\/span>
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Ms Holgate was recruited to<\/span> #<\/span>AustraliaPost<\/span><\/a> by the Turnbull government in October 2017 and immediately set the standard by accepting a wage at less than half of her predecessor Ahmed Fahour.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When Mr Fahour last represented AusPost, he & his chairman John Stanhope had fought to conceal Mr Fahour\u2019s full remuneration from the Australian public.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was subsequently revealed Mr Fahour received $6.8M.<\/span><\/p>\n

And his bonus incentives were $4M.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s 800 Cartier watches.<\/span><\/p>\n

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At the time much was made of the waste & expense during Mr Fahour\u2019s reign at AusPost, but when Ms Holgate arrived, things seemed to settle down \u2013 publicity wise.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least to the great Australian public.<\/span><\/p>\n

After her appointment points, there was only moderate media mention of Ms Holgate<\/span><\/p>\n

Media articles mentioning Ms Holgate personally from Nov 2017 to Feb 2020 were scattered & appeared to focus mainly on the operations of Australia Post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these appear to be generated* from Australia Post itself trying to rationalise the changes made in services.<\/span><\/p>\n

(*corporate comms)<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nHowever back in 2014, the Abbott govt commissioned the Liberal party\u2019s old favourite Boston Consulting Group to conduct a review of Australia Post.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, the BCG review found this wholly government owned service was a terrible waste of money<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The reason for this endless government money wasting was to set the agenda for privatisation of Australia Post.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s important in any story – especially when you\u2019re trying to sell the story to the Australian public \u2013 to lay down the crumbs for the narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Privatising Australia Post\u2019s unprofitable letters section and rural service has been so much on the Federal Liberal government\u2019s mind that in 2019, yet another review was called for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally Boston Consulting Group won this contract as well, because you need to pay for the opinion you want.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPrior to this however, Ms Holgate had been doing something very unfortunate in her 2 years at the helm \u2013 she’d started to turn the fortunes of Australia Post around.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms Holgate commissioned a report in 2018 from PwC<\/a> that highlighted areas of loss & how Australia Post could rationalise.<\/span><\/p>\n

And she listened.<\/span><\/p>\n

A highly respected corporate operator, Ms Holgate also listened to the local post office operators & the postal workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the federal govt has costly Community Service Obligations to their 2850 Postal Franchisees.<\/span><\/p>\n

They didn’t want listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

At all.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Australia Post’s Christine Holgate is on a mission to win back trust<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

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The parcel delivery section was posting record profits and as AusPost hurtled into a Covid-19 world in 2020 \u2013 those parcel profits became even larger.<\/span><\/p>\n

BCG\u2019s 2019 commissioned report was delivered to the Morrison govt in Feb 2020, just prior to the new Covid-19 world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Timing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new BCG review outlined how sections of Australian Post, particularly it\u2019s letter and international letter service, were still bleeding money.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now this was what the Morrison govt wanted to hear, after all they paid $1.9 million for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Governments need reviews to help them push their agendas.<\/span><\/p>\n

When in doubt, ask an outside expert, especially one that will tell you what you\u2019re already thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

And on top of all the other complicated factors needed to bring the public along with them, govts also need the media<\/span><\/p>\n

I mention this, because a funny thing happened dear reader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometime in April\/March this year, a slow steady creep of highly personal stories began to appear in the media about Christine Holgate.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one stage the Daily Mail (the PMO’s favourite trash dumping ground) was running articles twice a week about Ms Holgate\u2019s horrors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly Christine Holgate was everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

And she could do nothing right.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Emma Husar<\/span><\/a> will attest that all the bait-the-punters signs of media spin were there: a glamorous woman seemingly spending far too much public money.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ms Holgate spent money on pot plants!!, money on group thinks!!, advisers & bonuses!!<\/span><\/p>\n

(All the usual things CEOs everywhere do)<\/span><\/p>\n

The media stories dribbled out regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Always highly personalised, always slanted against Ms Holgate & always focused on the \u201cwaste of money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember when we said you had to lay down the crumbs of a narrative?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well if Ms Holgate had been half as cunning as the coordinated forces against her, she might have seen it coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly it seems at Senate Estimates last month, everybody on both sides of parliament knew it was coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stitch up was already on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just observe how Liberal Sen Jane Hume suddenly becomes deeply distracted by her phone at Senate Estimates just before Labor’s Sen Kitching opens her line of questioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Distracted for many minutes, Sen Hume never looks up at all as the money shot is lobbed at Ms Holgate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Scott Morrison\u2019s office certainly knew it was coming. That\u2019s because they had been laying the ground work for all the nasty leaks<\/span><\/p>\n

Or had they?<\/span><\/p>\n

Was there another disaffected force at work, playing their own pay back and leaking to Morrison\u2019s office as well?<\/span><\/p>\n

When Morrison was briefed on the BCG review in Feb this year, his advisers told him the board also should be reviewed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But allegedly, Scott Morrison would not countenance the removal of his own appointments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bad for the image.<\/span><\/p>\n

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So Scott Morrison stood in parliament and thumped his chest in the same month he ignored his govt spending $30M on a $3M property.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the AusPost board and chair knew all of this was coming too.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s why they refused to appear at Senate Estimates.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chair of AusPost, Lucio Di Bartolomeo has some connected history with Christine Holgate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Entirely coincidentally, he sat on the board of the Downer Group when Michael Harding was chair and Di Bartolomeo exited.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Harding is Christine Holgate’s husband.<\/span><\/p>\n

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So the AusPost board was nowhere to be seen as Scott Morrison hammed it up and acted his pants off over the mediocre saga of $20K corporate bonuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

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