"I'm amazed by the universe and what we see at night when we look into the sky. It is of such wonderful vastness, immenseness and complexity." Credit:Peter Braig Wow, let's backtrack there. Why that much money? The expense comes when you've got to get into an aircraft. Helicopters will cost $500 an hour, and you need about 200 hours to get a commercial licence. Fixed-wing aircraft? Probably about $250 an hour. You could easily spend $150,000. In America, some of the pilots have been earning less than the baggage handlers. In Australia, pilots are paid very well, but I'm not driven by money. Given the cost to train, does that mean class and family income determine who becomes a pilot?

If you want to manage it all yourself, yes. But you can join the airforce to be a pilot. Very soon you'll be able to join an airline as a cadet, where the airline will pay all the cost. It's fluid. What's money well spent booking a plane ticket? The main thing is to make sure you have the leg space you need. I've been on an aircraft and seen people so squashed in their economy seats, I've moved them because it's unsafe. I've said, "Really, you are not doing yourself any good buying this small economy seat, given you're nearly seven feet tall. You need to look after yourself. I'll help you out on this flight, but you need to look after yourself when you next book a seat." RELIGION Are you a religious man?

I was, but I'm not religious now. When something happens like the near disaster in 2010 with Qantas flight 32, I imagine a lot of people turn to God for comfort and solace. Where did your thoughts turn to? The elements of resilience in my airline. We repeatedly train people to produce the most fantastic crews and support organisations in the world. I'm incredibly proud of all the teams in my airline that got all those passengers not just down on the ground, but home. That is not luck. My airline has spent the money and we've done the hard work. So rather than believing in religion, your beliefs lie in preparation, resilience and teamwork. If I'd let my hands off the controls and asked God to land the aircraft, I don't think he would have. Some people wrote letters to me saying I should have acknowledged God for QF32. I didn't reply. But if I had, I would've said, "Well first of all, I would've blamed him for destroying a perfectly good engine."

What do you turn to when you need to centre yourself? My wife. Family. I always try to lower things to the simplest common denominator to see if I'm over-complicating the situation. What brings out your spiritual side? I'm amazed by the universe and what we see at night when we look into the sky. It is of such wonderful vastness, immenseness and complexity. It is truly great to think of how we might go about understanding it all. And I love art. POLITICS

You travel the world. How do you explain Australian politics to outsiders at the moment? I would have trouble, because I don't understand the events of [August, when Malcolm Turnbull was ousted as PM]. I think it was unnecessary. The two best prime ministers Australia has had in my life have been Bob Hawke – a fantastic delegator; a great CEO of the country – and John Howard. Howard said the most important thing in a leader is to have clear values. You may not have agreed with what he did, but you always understood his values. That's the first thing: strong values and beliefs. The second is to keep the best relationship with those you immediately lead. What if the team turns against you – as happened to Turnbull? Then you haven't followed Howard's rule that you must protect your teams – even at your own cost. Doing that, you guarantee success – you can't fail. Success is a team win for that reason. For the same reason, failure is always the leader's fault.

Would you ever run for office? Part of me would like to. But the minute I do, 50 per cent of people won't like me! Let's talk more about the part of you that wants to run, then. Why does running for office appeal? I know where I'd like Australia to go in the long term. I've written letters to politicians saying we should build high-speed train lines to Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne. They say we don't have the money. I say, "That's silly. Your job as politicians is to give the vision, then let governments over the next 20 or 30 years pay for it. You don't give up because you can't pay for it in the next election cycle." It's interesting that someone who works for an airline would be advocating for high-speed rail.