Former Australian Postmaster Christine Holgate has revealed her worst day during the Cartier watch scandal – when she was depicted in a national newspaper cartoon in a way she said made her look like a slut.
The former CEO was removed from her job in 2020 when it emerged that she had given four Cartier watches to senior managers — totaling more than $20,000 — as a reward for securing a deal with three major banks that would allow people to do business in them. Post offices.
An investigation later found no indication of dishonesty, fraud, corruption or willful misuse of Australian Post money relating to the watches, and Holgate was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Holgate spoke candidly about the incident and the ensuing scrutiny from the media that left her suicidal at a Forbes event on Wednesday, and said it was a cartoon drawn by David Rowe and published in the Australian Financial Review that shocked her the most.
The cartoon depicts disinterested former Prime Minister Scott Morrison with several watches around his wrist while Mrs. Holgate is seen walking out the door behind him in a short white dress with lipstick smeared across her face.
Sarah O’Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Australia interviewed Christine Holgate during a talk on the power of resilience at the Forbes Australia Women’s Summit at ICC Sydney
I was portrayed as a prostitute in a cartoon in a national newspaper. ‘This wouldn’t have happened to a man,’ Holgate said at the Forbes Australia Women’s Summit in Sydney on Wednesday.
Adding to the pain of this ordeal, Mrs. Holgate’s two nephews, the children of her late sister whom she considered “my children”, also watched the cartoon.
“How would you feel if you saw your sister or your mother being portrayed as a whore in the newspapers because she did nothing wrong?” She said.
“The hurt I felt because of the humiliation I brought to the people I love was far deeper than any pain they could do to me.”
shouted Mr Morrison on the floor of Parliament when the watch purchases first came to light.
The AFR cartoon was titled “Cartier, When It’s Time to Go,” and showed Mr. Morrison with a single watch that had “Federal ICAC” written on its face.
After the cartoon was published, both the paper’s editor Michael Stutchbury and cartoonist Mr Rowe denied that Holgate appeared to be a sex worker.
She’s totally wrong about that. If you try to decipher the cartoon, said Mr Stuchbury, it’s really a critique of Morrison with the sports resorts, the Leppington Triangle, the ICAC, he’s focused on. news.com.au in April 2021.
‘She’s walking out the door. There is none of the symbolism you might have for a slutty client image.
Mr Rowe said the cartoon was only meant to criticize Mr Morrison.
“Like most people, I was appalled by Morrison’s attitude on the 22nd and drew the cartoon in response,” he said.
Not everyone loves cartoons, but drawing a female public figure as a prostitute has never been part of my cartoon vocabulary and I’m really sad to think that this causes her additional, unnecessary distress.
Ms Holgate said the cartoon and the subsequent coverage left her heartbroken
At the time of the scandal, Holgate told an investigation that she had heard of high-performing employees being sent on foreign trips in the years leading up to her tenure.
She said the practice of receiving watches for strong performers was common to the Australian Post, some of whom had been awarded cars in previous years.
Upon hearing about the bounty in 2021, then Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament that the gifts were a disgrace.
Ms Holgate said she was treated ‘like a criminal’, ‘abandoned to a media storm’ and unjustly sacked against her will, leaving her suicidal and in need of insomnia medication.
The same investigation heard that Holgate’s predecessor, Ahmed Faour, who was CEO from 2010 to 2017, spent thousands on six smartwatches worth $579 each in 2015.
Despite the trauma of the disaster, she has slowly managed to get over it, said Holgate, who is now CEO of Team Global Express, formerly Toll Global Express.
“One day I woke up and thought ‘f**k you b***ards,'” she said at the Forbes summit.
“It feels incredibly lonely but once you get to the ‘f**k you b*****ds’ stage, you can hold your head up.”
Holgate went on to receive $1 million in damages from Australia Post
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