Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the $5.6 million salary of Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour is "too high", a day after the Senate thwarted efforts to keep Australia's biggest public service pay packet secret.
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Australia Post posts a profit.
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Documents show one senior executive of the government owned company, understood to be Mr Fahour, received a $4.4 million salary with bonuses and $1.2 million in superannuation, while five other executives received salaries of between $1.3 million to $1.8 million.
Mr Turnbull, who is paid $507,338 a year, said he had told Australia Post chairman John Stanhope he believed the salary was too high.
"The Australia Post board in independent, it makes its own commercial decisions so this is not a decision of the government," he said.
"As the Prime Minister and a taxpayer, I've spoken to the chairman today. I think that salary, that remuneration, is too high.
"I think it's too high, I know it's a big job, it's a big company. I know the company has been able to improve its position but in my view, and I say this as someone who spent most of his life in the business world before I came into politics, I think that is a very big salary for that job.
"I'm entitled to my opinion, just like every other Australian is, and I think many would agree with me."
An Australia Post spokeswoman said this week Mr Fahour's pay "takes into account the size and complexity of the organisation, which has an annual turnover of more than $6 billion".
The company published detailed information about executive salaries up until its 2014-15 annual report. The last time Mr Fahour's salary was listed was in the 2013-14 annual report, when he received a salary of $1.7 million and a bonus of $2.6 million.
A further $2 million he was due in net superannuation payments was "mutually agreed" to be turned into a pre-tax $2.8 million donation to the Islamic Museum of Australia, founded by his brother Moustafa Fahour.
Labor senator Doug Cameron said Australian companies were pushing "Bangladesh" wage rates and conditions for workers, but Wall Street pay and conditions for executives.
"I just can't for the life of me understand why any public servant would need to be paid over $5 million," he said.
"I have appeared in estimates with Australia Post and I can't see over $5 million worth of value out of any individual."
Liberal James Paterson, chair of the committee responsible for releasing the information this week, said it was clearly in the public interest.
"A lot of other organisations, the NBN, for example, publishes this information and listed companies in Australia are required by law to publish it, so I don't see why a publicly owned entity like Australia Post should have less disclosure obligations than a private company," he told the ABC.
"It is an extremely generous salary package and it makes him the highest paid public servant effectively in Australia, even more than the NBN CEO, who received about $3.6 million last financial year."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the revelation was disgusting and pledged to take action
"No Australians would support this. No one," she said.
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