Leigh Sales to step down from 7.30 after election

The ABC is yet to announce a replacement - though contenders are likely to include Laura Tingle and David Speers.

7.30 anchor Leigh Sales will leave the show after the federal election.

Journalist Leigh Sales has announced she will step down as host of the ABC’s flagship program 7.30 following the federal election.

At the end of Thursday’s program, Sales said there was “nothing wrong, other than I just feel a strong sense of it being time to pass the baton to the next runner in the race”.

“The end of an election cycle feels like a good time to move on to something new at the ABC,” she said.

“I was appointed to the job on December 3, 2010. This is my 12th year in the seat. That was five prime ministers ago. It was so long ago that Donald Trump was just a guy with a bad orange hair-do hosting The Apprentice.

“I’ve tried to shut down and call out bullshit, hold powerful people to account, expose lies, incompetence and exaggeration in all political parties and all issues and present facts even when they’re unpopular or inconvenient.”

Sales will remain with the ABC in a new role and will lead the ABC’s election-night TV coverage.

An announcement from @leighsales. #abc730pic.twitter.com/hy01mUsYyD

— abc730 (@abc730) February 10, 2022

ABC managing director David Anderson said Sales was an exceptional journalist.

“Leigh’s integrity, intellect and courage are evident in everything she does,” his statement said. “Our audiences have always seen Leigh as a journalist and broadcaster who challenges her subjects and asks the questions we all want answers to. I’m really looking forward to the next stage of her career here at the ABC.”

Sales said a desire to spend more time with her two young sons was one of the main reasons behind her decision.

“When I first started, I didn’t have children, and now I have two boys aged 10 and eight,” she said.

“They’ve only ever known their mum at work four nights a week. They want me home with them before 8.30pm and I don’t think that’s too much for two little boys to ask.”

Sales has also been vocal in recent years about her disgust at being subjected to offensive material directed at her on social media.

Leigh Sales after her interview with Paul McCartney. Picture: MPL Communications/MJ Kim

“Anyone who can stomach wading into mentions of @leighsales will find that virtually hourly, I am abused for doing my job, with a stream of tweets goading me to quit, demanding the ABC sack me, telling me I’m useless, stupid, biased and incompetent,” she said last year.

“It is overwhelmingly left-leaning Twitter users who are targeting ABC journalists for abuse.”

On Thursday night, the 48-year-old cited two of her favourite interviews during her time on the program.

“The celebrities come and go but you never forget people like Matthew Low, whose wife was killed in the Dreamworld rollercoaster accident, and who somehow found the strength down the track to do an interview to try to ensure no other family would ever have to go through what his did,” she said.

“People like Matthew are the ones who really stick with you. Every time you interview somebody whose life has been devastated, you feel terrified by what life has dished up to them and incredibly humbled by how they’ve met that with strength and clarity and dignity. “You don’t forget it.

“You do remember some of the celebrities of course. Interviewing Paul McCartney and getting a hug from him is one of the best days of my life.

“In all the years I’ve anchored, I’ve never had more viewers come up to me in public than after that interview to say how much joy it gave them, and it was so beautiful that people felt like they had shared in that experience with me.”

The ABC is yet to announce a replacement for Sales, though contenders are likely to include her 7.30 colleague Laura Tingle, and host of Insiders, David Speers.