‘The Yes win was one of the most emotional days of my life’: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce

‘The Yes win was one of the most emotional days of my life’: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce
Image: Image: Ann-Marie Calilhanna.

A little more than six months after the Yes vote won in Australia, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has revealed what the day meant to him.

Speaking at this year’s LGBTI Inclusion Awards in Sydney, the Pride in Diversity co-patron said it was an honour to fill the “big shoes” of former co-patron Michael Kirby, before highlighting how much had changed over the past year.

“Since we sat down last year at these awards, what a year we’ve had,” he said.

“Particularly at the end of the year, where we saw an amazing outpouring of support for the LGBTI community with the vote by Australian people on changing the Marriage Act.

“I have to admit November 15 was one of the most emotional days of my life – I was proud of the Australian people for sending a message of acceptance and inclusion, and telling the world it’s all about a fair go.

“I was proud of the hundreds of thousands of people that worked on the campaign.”

He added that much of the hard work that went behind winning the postal survey was undertaken by people behind the scenes.

“There were many people that didn’t get enough credit for the work they do, including my partner Shane” he said.

“If you bought an equality t-shirt, you probably bought it from Shane… or even Elaine [Czulkowski], who organised this event.

“They worked tirelessly and hard and they made marriage equality happen.”

Despite the major victory, Alan Joyce added being open and proud in the workplace is a hurdle faced by LGBTI people around the world, even in the most progressive cities.

“I heard the story of a young guy in New York, one of the most open environments in the world, who was working for a big bank and hadn’t built up the courage to tell his boss that he was gay,” he said.

“When he finally did tell his boss it was a relief, because his boss was so excited, but that concern or fear around coming out is still there, even in major banks around the world.

“It shows how much work we have left to do.”

The LGBTI Inclusion Awards saw more than 700 business leaders, diversity champions, and professionals gather to celebrate the results of the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI).

See the full list of 2018 Australian LGBTI Inclusion Awards recipients.

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One response to “‘The Yes win was one of the most emotional days of my life’: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce”

  1. Hate to rain on Alan’s Parade but given that for a long time before the survey was put to the people Poll after Poll after Poll told us that up to 72% of those polled said “Yes” to Gender Equality – including Same Gender Marriage. Yes, people did put a lot of effort into promoting the concept of Equality. Yes, including hate-filled, bigots like Maggie Court, many people campaigned against that concept.
    Without Malcolm Turnbull’s Survey we would still not have achieved that next vital step towards Total Equality.
    Without that Survey and if the ALP under Bill Shorten wins the 2019 Federal Election we would probably never have been granted our Right to Equality.
    The glitterati within our GLTBIQ Community refused to give Turnbull the credit. Yet when the result came through many of them – including South Australia’s Café latte socialist senator Penny Wong gleefully posed with her leader Bill Shorten who tried to claim it was all, his idea in the first place and did this despite his frequent statements right up to the day of the Survey that he was not in favour of us being granted Equality with our fellow Australians.
    Then we had some members of our community who claimed they had been hurt and emotionally damaged by the Survey.
    Without that Survey the Federal Parliament would never, have changed the Australian Marriage Act. Indeed, even when it did pass with such a massive majority, it was Malcolm Turnbull and Dale Smith who saw to it that the Act was changed.
    Remember this: In the event of a change of Government in 2019 , and if not then some future government. with control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate the Act can be changed and very probably would be changed so that we lose our Right to Equality.