Malcolm Turnbull is calling on the managing director of Australia Post to take a voluntary pay cut.

The prime minister is critical of the $4.4 million salary and a $1.2 million bonus Ahmed Fahour was paid last year, labelling it part of a “cult of excessive executive CEO remuneration”.

“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’s Neil Mitchell on Friday.

Turnbull said he retained confidence in the company’s board – which sets executive pay – but the managing director’s package is far too high.

He acknowledged Fahour was very talented but $5.6 million was too much.

Fahour’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.

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

His 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.