Advance Australia Fair

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Qantas CEO Alan Joyce

Alan Joyce aged 48, was born in Ireland and began his career with Aer Lingus. He joined Qantas in 2000, and became its CEO in 2008.

At a business leaders function in Sydney at the weekend organised by the Australian Marriage Equality campaign Mr Joyce told the audience

There’s one expression I love about Australia – that it’s “the land of the fair go. At Qantas, we call ourselves “the spirit of Australia” and see ourselves as representing our community.

We want all the people who come to work every day to feel equal. To feel that they can contribute equally in the organization, and in the country. So any piece of legislation that still says ‘you’re different’, ‘you’re second class’, ‘you don’t have the same rights as everybody else’ is bad for everybody’s position.’

‘As a gay man running the biggest iconic brand in the country, I believe Australia is a meritocracy. I don’t know many countries in the world where you would see that happening – the national airline, this iconic Australian brand… I’m Irish, and I’m gay, and I run this company.

‘And when you think of the history of this country, being one of the first to give the vote to women, our progressive nature has somehow gone missing on this issue.’

Now, if the referendum in Ireland passes – and it has great support there – then the only nationality that we can’t get married on is our Australian nationality. Which is terrible!

Australian business leaders call for same-sex marriage to become law (GayStarNews)

Thanks Mark Geary

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33 thoughts on “Advance Australia Fair

    1. Jordofthejungle

      Lol – you were quick with the troll – mere minutes after this was posted. The No-bots are ever-vigilant ready to troll at a moments notice.

      High troll’n in April, all a waste of time in May!

        1. 评论员

          THINGS ARE LOOKN’ GOOD FOR THE YES VOTE DURING APRIL IN IRL & HES HAPPY ABOUT IT BEING IRISH AND WHATNOT…HE THEN DURING MAY REFLECTS ON THE SITUATION IN OZ & REALIZES IT NEEDS CHANGING THERE ALSO HENCE HIS POST/TWEET WHATEVER.

          ITS GONNA BE A YES IN ANY CASE, I GENUINELY HAVE NO OPINION EITHER WAY.
          TRUTHFULLY I COULDN’T CARE EITHER WAY, IT DOESN’T EFFECT ME, I NOT A
          ME FEINER, THIS COUNTRY & ITS I’M ALRIGHT JACK CARRY ON HAS MADE ME A CYNICAL P***K.

          1. Spaghetti Hoop

            Just reading ‘I’m alright Jack carry on’ in CAPS has given me a giggle.

  1. James

    Haven’t thought of that before but if a YES result would inspire others to stand up and fight for equality in their own nations, now that would be fantastic.

    Would be nice to be an example of good, for once…

          1. Spaghetti Hoop

            They didn’t hold a referendum, granted, but they amended their legislation on marriage. Isn’t that what is inspiring the equality campaign in this country??

      1. ahjayzis

        No other nation has voted it in though, it’s all been done through legislation.
        I don’t agree with the concept of minority rights being up for majority vote – but since we’re stuck with it, a Yes by popular vote sends an incredible message to the world. A No will confirm a lot of negative historical stereotypes.

  2. rotide

    how about instead of tenuous links like this you put up a transcription of the Vincent brown debate last night which I only caught the end of due to Drico being on second captains.

    I tuned in just in time to see Norris look like a shrill teenager and try to shout down some ‘respectable nice young lad’ from the no side. From the last 10 minutes or so, the no side won it hands down which is worrying but like i said, didnt see the start.

    1. newsjustin

      Nothing either about the recent briefing paper from those lawyers/barristers about the impact changing Article 41. I heard a little about it on the radio. Was it not to BS’s liking?

  3. Don Pidgeoni

    Australia won’t bring this in with Abbott in charge. He is massively conservative about social issues. Would be nice to be proved wrong though.

    1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      Abbott, the former trainee priest, is definitely not going near it. The recent Labor PM, Julia Gilliard, pretended she wasn’t in favour of gay marriage, just to keep the conservatives happy.

      Abbott’s sister is gay, so he is very familiar with the topic.

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Exactly. Didn’t know that about his sister though. Could be a few awkward family dinners there

  4. Owen

    Oz had a gay marriage act passed in 2013 then reverted shortly after, as it contradicted the constitution on the definition of marraige. Interesting that there was no uproar when it was passed and it did not get global media attention, although a heavy debate proceeded it for some years. In the end it was done in the honest interest of equal rights by its government. Fair play to him. I’m not sure I fully agree with his approach given its histroy in Oz, but I dont have an other approaches in mind.

    1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

      That was the ACT (Australian Capital Territory – Canberra) Government. The Federal Government overrule them, so the marriages were no longer recognised.

      It does appear that the Labor ACT Government did to annoy the new Liberal Federal Government.

  5. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    Joyce seems to have turned QANTAS around. He has as strong a Dublin accent as you will find. Fari dues to him, not pretending to be someone else.

    It is great that he is highlighting the absurdity of Ireland being more progressive than Australia. I will be throwing this at Aussies when they talk about Ireland being conservative.

    1. Praetorian.

      As sound a bloke as you’ll ever meet,went to school with him…good family,all the lads done well…no opinions about themselves at all.

  6. TheBeef

    Indeed fair play to him. Slightly off topic though, it seems a disproportionate amount of the top jobs in aviation are filled by Irish people. Always wondered why that was. Around the time of the Icelandic volcano eruption you couldn’t turn on the news without seeing an Irish person speaking as a representative of a major airline or the aviation industry in general. I seem to remember that at that time the EU spokesperson on air travel (or such like) was an Irish woman. Not that any of this is a bad thing of course, just interesting because there aren’t that many of us.

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