Alan Joyce unleashes about homophobic attacks on him during his time as Qantas boss: 'Deliberately set up'

Published: 03:27, 3 August 2026 | Updated: 03:27, 3 August 2026 Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has recalled being singled out by powerful Australians - including former federal opposition leader Peter Dutton - for being a vocal advocate for the 'Yes' vote during the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite. Speaking on The Briefing podcast, Joyce - an openly gay man - also recalled the infamous 2017 business breakfast in Perth, where a disgruntled conservative Christian plastered a lemon meringue pie in his face during his keynote address. 'It was a homophobic attack, and it was deliberately set up to show outrage about my support for marriage equality,' Joyce told host Sacha Barbour Gatt. 'I was one of a lot of CEOs that originally signed a letter from the marriage equality campaign saying the government should go on and legislate it, but I was the only one singled out by (then Immigration Minister) Peter Dutton saying, "stick to your knitting".' 'Then (former tennis player) Margaret Court famously did a front page in the Western Australian saying she was boycotting Qantas because of my stance on it. '(Virgin CEO) Richard Branson came out a few days later saying Virgin had supported marriage equality longer than I had, so I don't know if Court was boycotting all the airlines and couldn't travel anywhere.' During the interview, Joyce - who is currently on a media blitz promoting his new memoir Riding the Jet Stream - talked about his decision to move to Australia in the 1990s from Ireland due to more accepting attitudes towards gay people. 'Ireland was a lot more conservative - homosexuality wasn't decriminalised until 1993,' he said. Joyce (right) pictured with husband, Shane Lloyd, in 2018 Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Joyce to 'stick to knitting' after the CEO came out in support of marriage equality Joyce and Magda Szubanski share a moment after the announcement that the 'Yes' vote for marriage equality had won the plebiscite 'When I first started working for Irish national carrier Aer Lingus my boss said, "You're working for a very good catholic airline now", and I knew that the philosophy there wasn't conducive to being open. 'I decided after)looking at Mardi Gras and how acceptable Australia was that I'd come here for the lifestyle, and it was the best move I ever made.' Joyce moved to Australia in 1996 to join the now-defunct airway Ansett Australia; it was while living in Melbourne that he met his now-husband Shane Lloyd.   He came out publicly in an interview with Sydney Morning Herald in 2010, two years after assuming the mantle of CEO at Qantas; he had already privately told his family and his work colleagues about his sexuality.  'Hopefully we get to a day where people don't have to come out', Joyce said. 'I got a lot of homophobic emails - I came out one day and saw my PA and she was crying (because of) the emails that were coming in. I said "Delete them. Do not look at them."  'At the time I thought "I don't want to be the gay CEO. I just want to be the CEO that happens to be gay". 'That distinction may not make sense to a lot of people but to me, that was not defining me.' Joyce didn't want to be typecast as the 'gay CEO' Joyce faced intense criticism for his campaigning for the 'Yes' vote in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 2016 marriage equality plebiscite.  In addition to the barbs from Dutton and Court, Joye also faced pushback from the board of Qantas for his activism. 'The board started saying "Why do you have to lead this Alan? It looks like you're out there ahead of every other CEO and company" ... it was very important to me and my husband ... it was important to a lot of people at Qantas, it was important to a lot of our customers, and it was important to a lot of our shareholders. 'The upside was it's not too often in your career that you can have an impact and potentially have something as positive as that happening.' Joyce acknowledged that, despite not wanting to be defined by his sexuality, he could see the positive impact which had come from being typecast by culture as a "gay CEO".  'People need to have role models out there,' he said.  'Hopefully we'll have more gay people coming out in sports. There are more gay people in the business community because we still have 50 per cent of people in Australia who are gay not coming out at work, and we still have a higher level of suicide rates in that community. 'I was very pleased that I could do something small to help by giving some people a role model to show that people who are gay can have high achievement; it doesn't restrict you to what you can achieve.' After wrapping up his tenure at Qantas, Joyce has used his down time to write his memoirs - while the airline battles various legal woes from his time at the helm Joyce retired as Qantas Group CEO in September 2023 after 15 years at the helm, handing the reins to then-chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson.  In addition to covering his childhood and corporate career, the book delves into Joyce's controversial final decade at Qantas which saw the airline face a number of legal woes, including the ghost flight saga, mass ground crew layoffs, and a class action for failure to compensate cancelled flights between 2020-2022.