Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has told Sky News the Maddocks’ report into the Cartier watch saga found “serious issues” and any assertions otherwise would be incorrect.

Mr Fletcher said there has been a “lot of re-writing of history” in the past 24 hours including interpretations of the report which suggested no wrongdoing had been found.

“It’s not correct to say that did not find issues, in fact it found serious issues,” he said.

“It found very specifically that the rewarding of $20,000 worth of watches, of luxury watches, was inconsistent with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act.

“There’s been a lot of re-writing of history over the last 24 hours. There was a full inquiry and it found that that behaviour was inconsistent with the act”.

Mr Fletcher said there is also “no policy within Australia Post” which authorize the awarding of such watches, and the report found that neither the board nor the chairman “signed off on it”.

Ms Holgate yesterday claimed the former chairman John Stanhope did sign off on the awarding of the bonuses, a fact contrary to the report according to the minister.

The former chief executive will appear on Sky News Australia with Peta Credlin.