Scott Morrison refuses to apologise to ousted Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate

Scott Morrison has refused to apologise to ousted Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate who claimed he bullied and intimidated her out of the job.  

Ms Holgate resigned in November after it was revealed she bought highly paid executives four Cartier watches worth $5,000 each as a reward for signing a lucrative deal with Australia’s biggest banks.

In a heated Question Time debate after the expenditure was revealed, a furious Mr Morrison called for her to stand aside, saying ‘she can go’.

Ms Holgate on Tuesday hit back, telling a senate inquiry that this amounted to bullying and harassment and insisting she had done nothing wrong. 

The former CEO said she was left suicidal and took insomnia medication due to her poor mental health as a result of the criticism. 

In an interview with The West on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said he regrets causing hurt but refused to apologise.

He admitted his words in parliament were strong but insisted Ms Holgate was in the wrong to use taxpayer money to buy luxury watches. 

‘I see that this has caused some very strong reaction from Christine and had hurt her deeply. That was not my intention and so I regret that,’ he said.

‘But at the same time, the issue here was how taxpayers’ funds were being used in a government-owned company and as prime minister I have to stand up for those standards and did.

‘It was not my intention to upset or offend Ms Holgate. I appreciate she has gone through a difficult time and that’s not something that I would have liked to have seen happen.

‘But we’re all accountable for the decisions we make and the things that we do.’ 

‘It was not my intention to upset or offend Ms Holgate,’ Mr Morrison said on Wednesday

Mr Morrison also denied treating her poorly because she was a woman, an accusation that Ms Holgate levelled on Tuesday.

‘No I don’t accept that. This was about the issues of taxpayers money. I don’t accept there were any gender issues here at all.

The prime minister pointed out that is was not only the government who put pressure on Ms Holgate.

‘My language was strong, parliament can get very heated. The Labor Party were calling for her resignation,’ he said. 

‘What I said was that there should be an inquiry… and I said she should stand aside while they were doing that.’ 

When defending her decision to buy the watches in October, Ms Holgate claimed Australia Post’s profits were not taxpayers’ money.

But the government is the only shareholder of the company.

‘It was very clear that the statement had been made that this was not taxpayers’ money and I took great difference with that statement,’ Mr Morrison said.

‘If you’re running a government-owned business then it is taxpayers’ money and it has to be treated like that.’