Joyce declares “strong business case” for marriage equality

Qantas chief Alan Joyce says most Australias are “fed up” with parliament’s failure to address marriage equality.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. Picture: Kym Smith

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has declared there is a “strong business case” for marriag­e equality, claiming many shareholders will only invest in companies with a “good corporate social responsibility”.

Mr Joyce said most Austral­ians were “fed up” with the failure of federal politicians to address marriage equality “and just want it to happen”.

In an interview with GQ published today, Mr Joyce was asked about Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton recently telling him to “stick to your knitting”.

Mr Joyce said as chief executive he had learned “you have to be very hard-nosed in your ­approach and your views, and not be intimidated by anybody­”.

“What’s important is that people­ understand what we’re saying — which is that parliament should just get on and do something about marriage equality, most Australians are fed up with this and just want it to happen­,’’ he said.

“The reaction from all our stakeholders to our efforts on marriage equality has been overwhelmingly positive, and there are a lot of shareholders these days who will only invest in companies that have good corporate­ social responsibility.”

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Mr Joyce cited a Deloitte study that found members of the LBGTI community, the indigenous community and people­ with a disability were three times more likely not to recommend a service or product if they believed they had been subject to discrimin­ation. “So if you don’t appeal to that segment of the community, the economic impact is ... huge … not only do we think it’s morally the right thing to do, there’s a strong business case,’’ he said.

He said he was once asked by a young indigenous girl if he could see a young indigenous woman one day becoming the chief executive Qantas.

“And I said, which I fundamentally believe, ‘If a gay Irish man can become the CEO of Qantas, then easily a young indigenous woman could’,” he said.

“So we’re very happy with sticking to our knitting, but our knitting involves being part of the community, and our knitting involve­s us being outspoken on issues like this.”

On Saturday, tennis great John McEnroe made Margaret Court and her opposition to gay marriage the subject of his regular satirical skit on Europort, saying: “I actually don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t give them the right to be as miserable as everyone else.”

McEnroe, who plays the character of Commissioner of Tennis in the skits, described Ms Court as “a legend in our sport” before adding that she won 34 of her 62 titles before the Open era.

“And she did lose against Bobby Riggs in the first battle of the sexes. Hold on, she lost to Bobby then Billie Jean King beat the shit out of him. Now we know where that hatred may come from,” he said.

In his character as Commissioner McEnroe, he said there were three ways to respond to Ms Court’s assertion last week that “tennis is full of lesbians”. “This is true and who gives a f..k? This is not true and who should give a f..k? This is half true and should we really give a f..k?”, he said.

And addressing calls for the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne to be renamed, he said: “Keep the name, and when same-sex marriage finally becomes legal in Australia, I will personally call my good friend Elton John to host the biggest same-sex mass wedding ceremony ever seen in the Margaret Court Arena. Margaret, that’s the kind of guy I am.”

• GQ Australia June/July issue is on sale today.