Australia Post refuses to reveal how many millions of dollars its managing director earned last year, despite a freedom of information request from Fairfax Media.
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Ahmed Fahour's last published salary was $4.8 million in 2014, but the government-owned corporation stopped publishing executive remuneration details last year.
A request for his 2015-16 salary was refused because it "relates to the commercial activities of the corporation" and "would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information".
"It is my view that there is no public interest in the disclosure of personal information pertaining to officers of Australia Post," the company's FOI officer wrote.
A spokeswoman said Australia Post will consider its financial disclosures for next year's annual report and said salaries reflect the complexity and size of the business. Last year it took in record revenues of $6.5 billion and delivered a $41 million profit. It paid a $20 million dividend to the government. It is funded from its own operations.
Up until 2014, Australia Post published detailed information about executive pay, which also revealed 409 Post employees, or 1.5 per cent of its workforce, were earning more than $200,000 annually.
Last week Australia Post refused to tell Fairfax Media how many staff earned high salaries in 2016, saying it "no longer has an obligation" to gather this information after reporting standards changed in 2015.
The new regulation allows government-owned entities to lump together all executive and director salaries under one number, similar to accounting standards for unlisted companies. Some entities, like NBN Co, continue to report individual pay.
The 2015-16 annual report shows eight Australia Post executives and 12 directors collectively earned $18.7 million. The 12 directors received about $1.1 million of that, which means eight executives shared about $16 million in 2016, including $4 million set aside for long-term bonuses. Someone received $368,000 in termination benefits and $1.5 million for "post employment benefits".
In November's Senate estimates Mr Fahour was asked to provide details of executive pay. Despite promising to supply the information at "premium express" speeds, the answer missed its November 30 due date.
The 2015 accounting standards were designed to reduce red tape and bring "executive remuneration disclosure into alignment with the requirements of Australian Accounting Standards for the private sector", the Department of Finance told Fairfax Media.
However, chairman of Transparency International Australia, Anthony Whealy, believes government-owned corporations should use higher standards than the private sector.
"There is no public interest reasons why Australia Post should try to cover up anything about the way it operates, including the salaries of senior people," Mr Whealy said.
"A fundamental part of democracy is that there has to be transparency surrounding government-owned enterprises. We can't expect openness from the private sector if an example of transparency is not available to us in the government sector."
And unlike listed companies, Australia Post is not vulnerable to shareholder anger. Professor Allan Fels, who headed an inquiry into executive pay, said he did not examine pay in government-owned companies.
"It seems anomalous that other businesses are subject to share holder pressure via the three strikes rule and Australia Post is not," Professor Fels said.
