I didn’t put a gun to their heads: Outgoing Australia Post CEO

Ahmed Fahour questions why he was singled out over his salary while other CEOs were ‘doing things to their secretaries’.

Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour announces his resignation at Australia Post HQ in Melbourne. (David Geraghty/The Australian)

Outgoing Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour has defended his $5.6 million salary, arguing he “never held a gun to the head of the government or the Australia Post board’’ to demand the sizeable wage. Mr Fahour also noted that other CEOs in the country have been caught “doing things to their secretaries’’ but still kept their job.

He said there were other Australian chief executives not running their companies very well, but noted they still got large payouts while his remuneration became a focal point of public debate and outrage.

Addressing the University of New South Wales Business School last night, Mr Fahour also vowed that for his next job he would select an employer where the shareholder is “happy to pay what I was told I was going to get paid’’.

Causing some laughter from the audience, Mr Fahour made a veiled reference to recent sex scandals that have engulfed corporate Australia and in particular Seven West Media’s chief executive Tim Worner.

QBE boss John Neal was revealed to have had an affair with his personal assistant and had his pay docked $550,000 but also kept his job.

Mr Fahour, a former senior executive at National Australia Bank, was forced to bring forward his departure plans at Australia Post when earlier this year his remuneration — which didn’t appear in the Australia Post annual report — was disclosed by a Senate committee.

The size of his payout, $5.6m, was more than ten times that of the Prime Minister and confirmed Mr Fahour’s status as the highest paid public servant in Australia. His salary of $4.4m was topped up by a bonus of $1.2m, and came as Mr Fahour turned Australia Post from a loss-making government agency and a drain on taxpayers to a profitable venture.

However, his huge salary caused a firestorm of anger and abuse, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, once a costly barrister before he entered politics, saying Mr Fahour’s remuneration was “too high”.

Australia Post chairman John Stanhope defended Mr Fahour’s salary at the time but acknowledged it was now “inconsistent with community expectations”.

But last night Mr Fahour defended his remuneration and his legacy at Australia Post, telling the audience he deserved the salary and was promised the remuneration when he took on the job nearly 8 years ago.

“At the time I was sought of bemused by it all, thinking, it’s not as though I held a gun to the government’s head or to the board’s head and said if you don’t pay me this I’m not going to do this job,’’ Mr Fahour told the UNSW audience.

“You know, this was what was offered, this is what I was told I had to do and I went about doing my job.’’

Mr Fahour then pointed to the misbehaviour of other CEOs and questioned how they kept their jobs.

‘’I was bemused at the time because there were some CEOs who were doing some things that were not so great to their secretaries and some were not running their businesses very well and they seemed to keep their jobs and nobody seemed to care about what they were being paid.

“But somehow, some people took a great delight in the fact that I did my job successfully and I got paid what I was told I was going to get paid.’’

Mr Fahour said he would pick his next job carefully.

“Time for me to move on to find the next challenge, next opportunity and just make sure I pick a shareholder who is happy to pay what they said they are going to pay”.