Recently Australia Post which is totally government owned and has been for 200 years, announced the loss of 900 jobs, being part of a cut back program. This is due to the decline in letters beings sent and that’s true as email has further reduced letter writing and in many ways understandably. A hand written letter is a wonderful thing and contains the hand writing of a friend or loved one and that’s a blessing plus the effort required to put pen to paper and then to post it. However a lot of mail is not so endearing and can be emailed and gets to its destination anywhere in the world almost instantly. No postage and no paper and no fuel used to drive to the mail box to post the letter. From this view point I think technology has delivered a wonderful option with email. However there is more to the Post Office game than just this.

The CEO of Australia Post is Ahmed Fahour who was born in Lebanon and came to Australia in 1970. In 2009 he was made Managing Director and CEO of Australia Post. His salary package was estimated to be worth $4.8 million last year. Of this he donated about $2 million to the Islamic Museum of Australia located in Melbourne. I have a big problem with this fellow’s salary package and so let’s get some perspective here. The top ten executives in Australia Post combined earn around $20 million each year. That’s simply immoral and clearly the CEO can afford to give away nearly half his takings to an Islamic museum so he doesn’t need it and surprise, surprise its tax deductable. The founder and director of the museum is former Macquarie Bank executive Moustafa Fahour - Ahmed Fahour’s brother. Moustafa’s wife, Maysaa, is the chairwoman and director. The Fahours’ sister, Samira El Khafir, is head chef and manages the restaurant on site. How can the CEO of the Post Office earn so much especially when the postal service is bleeding money from letter delivery. No employee is worth 5 million a year and especially not from a government owned business.

The top federal public servants in Australia have salaries of between $665,600 and $844,800 so how does the bloke in charge of the Post Office received $4.8 million. The Prime Minister of Australia earns a modest $507,000 considering the real burdens of office while the CEO of the Gold Coast Council earning slightly less and that’s patently out of kilter with the PM’s package. The Mayor of GCCC brings in $225,000 so how on earth can the Post Office justify the massive pay of their CEO. Let’s look further; the head of the US postal service with 19 times more staff and 11 times more revenue than Australia Post receives $550,000. In France the head of their post office was paid $1.1 million with a staff compliment of 268,000 employees. What a country full of mugs we are to sit by and let all this happen. I would have run the big game of Post Office for a lot less and still done a reasonable job and in fact if the best of we seniors applied our selves we could run the damn post office better and for nothing except a kiss and a free lunch now and again. You had better believe it too. There is an unpleasant and some would say sinister unbalanced agenda in Australia which in the end preys on the average citizen, we the people. We are no longer the lucky country and we are no longer wealthy and this particular game of Post Office reveals major fractures and faults on a number fronts in our society and culture. Who is running the country, who is pulling the levers and who is going to win. We the Mugs need to know. 
Until next time this is Kent Bayley