Salary of Australia Post’s chief draws scrutiny

SYDNEY — The multimillion-dollar annual compensation package paid to the head of Australia’s postal agency suddenly has cast a spotlight on executive salaries and growing levels of inequality in the country.

Public outrage over the $4.3 million paid to Ahmed Fahour of Australia Post has prompted Senate hearings, and the chairman of the agency defended Fahour’s compensation at one such hearing Tuesday.

John Stanhope, the chairman of Australia Post, said that as managing director and group chief executive, Fahour did not just run a postal service operation but rather an e-commerce company. He argued taxpayers had received a good return on their investment.

Fahour announced last week he would resign from the government-owned business in July after seven years on the job. The move followed a torrent of criticism after his pay was publicly revealed this month.

Though Fahour worked for a government-owned corporation, he was being paid at the level of a top-ranking executive at a publicly listed private company instead, experts said.

Australia Post had been asked to provide details about its executives’ salaries during a Senate hearing late last year. The company said it would provide the information but requested it be kept secret, arguing it could damage its brand. A Senate committee rejected that request after concluding the information was in the public interest.

Stanhope acknowledged in the hearing Tuesday the company should not have tried to conceal Fahour’s salary to avoid scrutiny and damage to the organization’s reputation.

Carl Rhodes, a professor of management at the University of Technology Sydney who researches business ethics, said Fahour earned about 10 times what the prime minister of Australia makes, up to 119 times what a postal worker makes and more than 73 times what workers in the transport, postal and warehousing industries make.