Employment Minister Stuart Robert told Insiders host David Speers the decision for the former postal service chief Christine Holgate to gift four executives Cartier watches totalling nearly $20,000 was not wise.

"It was probably unwise for a government business enterprise to do that," Mr Robert said on Sunday morning.

"I think that point has been well made."

A controversial robodebt scheme, introduced as a pilot program in 2015 by then-social services minister and then-treasurer Scott Morrison, wrongfully raised debts from thousands of Australians based on an averaging of income using tax office data.

The government agreed to pay back $1.2 billion dollars to about 400,000 Australians in late 2020, following a class action lawsuit.

Mr Speers asked the minister whether that was an appalling waste of money, too.

"It was unfortunately a 30-year practice where the use of average income data from the ATO frankly wasn't sufficient, and until this government actually got advice to say it wasn't sufficient, and therefore funds were actually paid back," Mr Robert said.

"It was a longstanding practice of government that just turned out to be incorrect."

No one in the government had been stood aside, or investigations launched, following the controversial robodebt scandal unlike Ms Holgate's, Mr Speers pointed out.

Mr Robert said the two issues couldn't be compared and that previous governments had used the program.

"They're very different issues," Mr Robert said.

"There was always human oversight, just the use of computer matching on income compliance, but still a person in that chain.

"Suffice to say that that was a continuation of a longstanding program that had been well accepted and well used by governments over 30 years."

While income averaging based on tax office data had been used by previous governments, the changes made in 2015 meant it could be used as the sole evidence for raising debts.

In November 2019, the Federal Court ruled the program could not validly raise debts and the department was ordered to pay back the amount taken from the plaintiff.

When Mr Morrison and Mr Porter first announced the scheme would be expanded in 2016, it was projected to raise $2 billion for the budget.

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Ms Holgate was asked to step aside after she revealed the Cartier bonuses during a Senate estimates hearing in October.

Mr Morrison said hours later the decision was "appalling" and if she did not step aside, she could leave the role.

The former chief executive appeared before a parliamentary inquiry last Tuesday, six months after the controversy first arose, where she alleged she had been bullied out of the role by the board's chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo and publicly humiliated by Mr Morrison in parliament.

Ms Holgate added a man would not have received the treatment she had.

The chair later admitted he had received two phone calls from Communications Minister Paul Fletcher following Ms Holgate's estimates appearance, requesting she be stood aside while the matter was investigated.

The investigation revealed Ms Holgate had not done anything wrong but the postal service's policies contained gaps that might be incongruent with public expectations.

Mr Morrison said he regretted his "strong language" but said it had nothing to do with gender and did not apologise for the handling of her case.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday accused Mr Morrison of bullying and humiliating the former Australia Post CEO, whose display during question time he labelled "brutal and misogynistic".

"The message this has sent to women is as unmistakable as it is bleak," Mr Turnbull wrote on Twitter.

"The message to those who work for [government] businesses is they can expect no loyalty or respect from their political masters.

"The only protected species, apparently, are the politicians themselves."

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