Australia Post paid millions in bonuses to senior staff after board deemed them ‘appropriate’

Eight senior Australia Post executives were collectively paid $4.45m in bonuses last financial year, with another $24m in incentives paid to 362 non-executive staff. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Australia Post considered scrapping controversial bonus payments to its executives last year, internal documents reveal, but the organisation’s board eventually decided they were needed to “incentivise” senior staff.

The discussion came after long-running criticism of the multimillion dollar scheme by senior government ministers, who wrote to the board raising concerns the incentives were out-of-step with community expectations.