Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has had a shot at fat-cat executives and called on Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour to take a pay cut.

Speaking on Melbourne’s 3AW radio on Friday, Mr Turnbull lambasted the “cult of excessive executive CEO remuneration” in Australia and repeated his view from earlier this week that Mr Fahour’s $5.6 million 2016 pay packet was “way too much”.

“I think Ahmed should step back and say ‘you know, here in 2017, in an economy where a lot of people are doing it pretty hard, where budgets are tight, this is too much to be paid as CEO of a government-owned postal company’,” he told 3AW host Neil Mitchell.

“I think most people would look at this and scratch their heads and say ‘give me a break’.”

The prime minister said Mr Fahour’s salary was part of a wider syndrome of overblown corporate pay packets in Australia.

I think there are lot of corporate CEOs, by the way, that are overpaid. I think it has become almost a cult of excessive executive, CEO remuneration”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Mr Turnbull said while he had confidence in the Australia Post board — which sets Mr Fahour’s pay — and felt Mr Fahour was a talented executive, the package was still far too high.

The managing director’s pay packet was revealed by a parliamentary committee after Australia Post tried to keep it confidential.

Documents show another five unnamed executives earned between $1.8 million and $1.3 million.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the salary was clearly out of step with community expectations and also urged the Australia Post board to reconsider remunerations.

“All of us who are employed in the service of the community are rightly accountable to the Australian public,” Senator Fifield said.

Australia Post says Mr Fahour’s package takes into account the size and complexity of the organisation, which has an annual turnover of more than $6 billion.

However, Mr Fahour’s salary appears to be significantly higher than his counterparts overseas. The chief executive of Royal Mail earns around $2.5 million, while the chief executive of Canada Post, Deepak Chopra, is paid a little less than $500,000 a year.

Mr Fahour’s remuneration in the previous financial year included a performance-based bonus in line with the company returning to profit and he did not receive a bonus in the year before that, it said.

– with AAP, ABC