The openly gay CEO of Qantas – one of Australia’s best known companies – has again reiterated his organization’s stance in support of same-sex marriage.

Alan Joyce [pictured] was talking yesterday at a business leaders function in Sydney organized by the Australian Marriage Equality campaign, reports Samesame.com

‘There’s one expression I love about Australia – that it’s “the land of the fair go”,’ he said.

‘At Qantas, we call ourselves “the spirit of Australia” and see ourselves as representing our community. We have over 250 different nationalities working for us, and 50 languages spoken. We’ve got a huge diverse workforce of 8,000 people – and we have a huge gay community within that workforce.

‘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.’

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. He holds both Irish and Australian passports, while he said that his partner of 17 years, Shane Lloyd, has three passports: New Zealand, Australian and British.

‘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!

‘At Qantas, we’re all in unison with our support for marriage equality.

‘A good company would get behind this, because it’s good for your brand.’

Joyce was speaking at an event entitled ‘Does marriage equality matter to corporate Australia?’

Also on the panel was Ann Sherry, CEO of cruise ship operator Carnival Australia, who agreed with Joyce, saying: ‘If Australia was Australia Proprietary Limited it would be illegal to discriminate. [But] if you’re in government it’s OK to discriminate.

‘That’s why there’s such a crisis of confidence about our political leadership. And that’s not good for any of us.’

Another panelist was Michael Ebeid, CEO of SBS, who said that discriminatory laws lead to an ‘unconscious bias’. He said that he had personally experienced colleagues downplaying the importance of same-sex relationships.

‘Even as CEO people still say to me, “you’re so lucky you don’t have a wife at home to nag you”. And they know I’ve been in a relationship for over a decade.’

The remaining panelists were Rodney Croome, CEO of Australian Marriage Equality and Lisa Annese, CEO of Diversity Council Australia.

Dozens of companies, including Qantas, Carnival Australia, SBS, IBM, H&M, Virgin Mobile, KPMG, Lush, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ have signed an open letter calling for marriage equality.

