Ex-Australia Post boss Christine Holgate slams AFR cartoon she said depicted her as ‘prostitute’

Ex-Australia Post boss Christine Holgate has revealed her worst day during her Cartier watch scandal – when she was portrayed in a national newspaper cartoon in a way that she says made her look like a prostitute.

The former CEO was fired from her job in 2020 when it emerged that she had donated four Cartier watches to senior executives – worth more than $20,000 in aggregate – as a reward for closing a deal with three major banks that would allow people to would be to do banking. post offices.

An investigation later found no evidence of dishonesty, fraud, corruption or deliberate misuse of Australia Post funds in relation to the watches, and Ms Holgate was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Ms Holgate spoke candidly about the incident and subsequent media attention that left her suicidal at a Forbes event on Wednesday. She said it was a cartoon drawn by David Rowe and published in the Australian Financial Review that shocked her the most.

The cartoon depicted a disinterested former Prime Minister Scott Morrison with several watches on his wrist, as Mrs Holgate walked out the door behind him in a short white dress with red lipstick smeared across her face.

‘I was portrayed as a prostitute in a cartoon in a national newspaper. That wouldn’t have happened to a man,” Ms Holgate said at the Forbes Australia Women’s Summit in Sydney on Wednesday.

Adding to the pain of the ordeal, Mrs. Holgate’s two nephews, the sons of her late sister whom she considers “my boys,” had also seen the cartoon.

“How would you feel if your sister or mother were portrayed as a prostitute in the newspaper because she does no harm?” she said.

“The pain I felt for the humiliation I brought to people I love was much deeper than the pain they could inflict on me.”

Mr Morrison had shouted ‘she can go’ from the floor of parliament when the purchases of the watches first came to light.

The AFR’s cartoon was titled ‘Cartier, when it’s time to go’ and showed Mr Morrison with one watch with ‘Federal ICAC’ written on the dial.

After the cartoon was published, both newspaper editor Michael Stutchbury and cartoonist Rowe denied that Ms Holgate was portrayed as a sex worker.

“She’s just completely wrong there. If you try to decipher the cartoon, it’s really a critique of Morrison with sports films, Leppington Triangle, ICAC, it’s aimed at him,” Mr Stuchbury said. news.com.au in April 2021.

‘She walks out the door. There’s none of the symbolism you might get from the image of a prostitute.’

Mr Rowe said the cartoon was only intended as a criticism of Mr Morrison.

“Like most, I was just as shocked by Morrison’s position on the 22nd and drew the cartoon in response,” he said.

“Not everyone likes caricatures, but drawing a female public figure as a prostitute has never been part of my cartoon vocabulary and I am very sad to think that this is causing her additional unnecessary suffering.”

Ms Holgate said the cartoon and subsequent coverage left her extremely sad

At the time of the waiting scandal, Ms Holgate told an inquiry that she had heard of high-performing employees who had been sent on overseas trips in the years before her tenure.

She said the practice of receiving watches for strong performance was common at Australia Post, with some even getting cars in previous years.

When then Prime Minister Scott Morrison found out about the reward in 2021, he told parliament that the gifts were a disgrace.

Ms Holgate said she was treated ‘like a criminal’, ‘left to a media frenzy’ and wrongly expelled against her will, leaving her suicidal and requiring insomnia medication.

The same investigation revealed that Ms. Holgate’s predecessor, Ahmed Fahour, who was CEO from 2010 to 2017, spent thousands in 2015 on six smartwatches worth $579 each.

Ms Holgate said that despite the trauma of the debacle, she slowly got through it and is now the CEO of Team Global Express, formerly known as Toll Global Express.

“One day I woke up and I was like ‘f**k you b***ards,'” she said at the Forbes summit.

“You feel incredibly alone, but once you’re on the stage of ‘f**k you b*****ds” you can put your head up.”

Ms Holgate subsequently received a $1 million payout from Australia Post