Sasha Barbagallo

speaker

629 appearances 7 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 28 Jul

Sasha Barbagallo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 7 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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The Briefing · IN FULL: Alan Joyce on running Qantas, lobbying Albo & Lounge secrets · 28 Jul 2026 podcast

I know it sounds silly, but was it hard to work in the heat initially?

Because like you said, it's such a shock to the system, especially coming from somewhere like Ireland.

Look, I want to talk about your sexuality and that role as CEO.

You took over the leadership of Qantas in 2008.

Now, you've said that you weren't hiding your sexuality, but you hadn't openly come out to the public and said, I'm gay.

You did that in 2010, though.

You did an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald because the PR of Qantas became aware that there was media interest in your sexuality.

You did do the interview and you formally came out to the Australian public.

What was that like in terms of having this interest in your private life that wouldn't have existed if you were straight?

Yeah.

Now, you just spoke then about some of the criticism you received at the time of coming out, but then let's fast forward to the mid-2010s in the lead-up to the gay marriage plebiscite.

So this was when the debate was happening of how Australia was going to handle, quote-unquote, the question of should there be marriage equality in this country.

Now, you...

in your position as CEO came out very publicly in support of same-sex marriage.

And that brought criticism.

There was, you know, Peter Dutton said, stick to your knitting.

You also talk in the book about how, you know, you had to meet with people like Mike Pence and you felt a little trepidation at like, well, he's a highly conservative figure who has spoken publicly about his non-support of marriage equality.

How is he going to take to me as someone who is very publicly in support of it and also an out homosexual?

How did that time weigh on you personally?

Because you'd taken on a very important role in the debate as such a forward-facing business leader in this country, but you were copying criticism for your own personal life and who you were as a person from very high-profile Australians.

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