Leigh Peta Sales (born 10 May 1973) is an Australian journalist and author, best known for her work with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
.
[Interview with Leigh Sales]
by Wendy Squires, ''Daily Life'' (''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
''), 16 December 2012.
Sales hosted
ABC TV's current affairs program ''
7.30
''7.30'' is an Australian nightly television current affairs program which broadcasts on ABC and ABC News at on Monday to Thursday nights. The program is currently hosted by Sarah Ferguson.
History
The program first aired on 7 March 2011, re ...
'' from 2011 to 2022.
In November 2022, it was announced that Sales had been appointed as the new host of ABC TV's weekly documentary series ''
Australian Story
''Australian Story'' is a national weekly current affairs and documentary style television series which is broadcast on ABC Television. It is produced specifically by the ABC News and Current Affairs Department. The program first aired on 29 ...
''.
Career
Sales was born in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
and attended
Aspley State High School in that city.
She received a bachelor of journalism from the
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...
and Master of International Relations from
Deakin University
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia.
Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...
. Sales joined the ABC in Brisbane in 1995.
Since then, Sales has held several prominent roles with the ABC and was New South Wales political reporter covering the
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
and
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
state elections. In addition, she reported on the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
.
Sales was the network's Washington correspondent from 2001 to 2005. The stories which she covered included the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
, the
2004 U.S. presidential election,
Guantanamo Bay, and
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
.
["7.30 About Us"](_blank)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
(21 February 2013)
Sales was the ABC's national security correspondent from 2006 until 2008 and was based in Sydney. From 2008 to 2010, Sales was a co-host of the ABC's ''
Lateline
''Lateline'' was an Australian television news program which ran from 1990 until 2017. The program initially aired weeknights on ABC TV. In later years it was also broadcast internationally throughout Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Plu ...
'', a late-night national current affairs show with a heavy emphasis on federal politics and international affairs.
Sales also hosted the ABC’s Australia Votes for the
2016 Australian Election
The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday 2 July to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign period. It was the first double dissol ...
and again for the
2019 election and hosted her last in
2022.
In December 2010, Sales was appointed anchor of the ABC's current affairs program, ''
7.30
''7.30'' is an Australian nightly television current affairs program which broadcasts on ABC and ABC News at on Monday to Thursday nights. The program is currently hosted by Sarah Ferguson.
History
The program first aired on 7 March 2011, re ...
''.
She has interviewed every living Australian prime minister and many world leaders and celebrities, including
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, the
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
,
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...
,
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
,
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)
is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''.
Called the "punk poe ...
, and
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
.
In 2019, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to broadcast journalism.
["2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List"]
Commonwealth of Australia
In February 2022, Sales announced she will step down from ''7:30'' in June 2022 following the
federal election.
[ She said she planned to continue working for the ABC.] In November 2022 Sales was announced as the new host of ABC TV's weekly biographical documentary series ''Australian Story'', to commence the role in early 2023.[
]
Publishing career
Her first book, ''Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks'', was published in 2007 by Melbourne University Publishing
Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne.
History
MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text books and stationery to students, and soon began publishing books itself. ...
(MUP). The book covers Hicks
Hicks, also spelled Hickes, is a surname.
See also Hix.
Surname A (... Hicks)
* Aaron Hicks (born 1989), American professional baseball center fielder
* Adam Hicks (born 1992), American actor, rapper, singer, and songwriter
* Akiem Hicks (born ...
' case as well as a detailed explanation of the Bush administration's detainee policy in the War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
and the Australian government's cooperation.
Sales' second book, ''On Doubt'', was published in 2009 as part of MUP's series ''Little Books on Big Themes''. It covers the rise of opinion in place of straight news reporting and the value of bringing a sceptical mindset to politics and policy, instead of ideological certainty. A second edition was published in 2017, with an additional chapter noting the Trump
Trump most commonly refers to:
* Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021)
* Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank
Trump may also refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Donald J. T ...
presidency and the rise of fake news
Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
.
Her third book, ''Any Ordinary Day'', was published in October 2018. It examines the way people adapt to life-changing blindsides, drawing on Sales' personal experience as well as her years covering high-profile news events that drastically changed people's lives.
Sales' writing has also regularly appeared in major Australian publications, including ''The Monthly
''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...
'', ''The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'', ''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', ''The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' and, before its demise, '' The Bulletin''.
In the wake of fellow ABC presenters Hamish Macdonald and Lisa Millar
Lisa Joy Millar (born 19 February 1969) is an Australian television news presenter and journalist.
Millar is currently co-host of the ABC's breakfast program '' News Breakfast'' alongside Michael Rowland.
She has previously been a foreign c ...
both deactivating their Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
accounts due to the high level of personal abuse they received on the platform, Sales wrote an opinion piece for the ABC in September 2021 exploring the issue of bullying received by journalists on Twitter which she described as "insidious" and "unhinged". This in turn prompted a public conversation on the topic.
''Chat 10 Looks 3'' podcast
In November 2014, Sales started a podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
with Annabel Crabb
Annabel Crabb (born 1973) is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for Adelaide's '' The Advertiser'', ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', ''The Age'', the ...
called ''Chat 10 Looks 3''. It is independent of the work they do for other media outlets and is an opportunity for them to talk about books, movies, television, the media and culture. The podcast won two awards at the 2019 Australian Podcast Awards in the “Literature, Arts & Music” and “TV, Film & Pop Culture” categories. Described by Sales and Crabb as shambolic and peripatetic the podcast episodes are recorded every two to three weeks. The podcast has spawned livestream shows in Australian capital cities and a book titled ''Well Hello'' published in September 2021. Self-proclaimed “chatters or chatterati” have formed a ''Chat 10 Looks 3 community'' on social media platforms built around the same tenets as the podcast - friendship, kindness, and an agreement to not discuss politics. Sales has said “a community has sprung up around (the podcast) who shares these in-jokes and language and interests. When I consume podcasts …I tend to see myself as a member of the audience, not as a member of a community. That’s why it caught me by surprise”
Personal life
Sales was married to Phil Willis and they have two sons. After 20 years of marriage, Sales and Willis separated in December 2016."Leigh Sales: 'It just started to feel like nothing was safe' "
by Amanda Hooton, ''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', 29 September 2018
Awards and recognition
Bibliography
*
*''On Doubt'' (2009)
*
*''Any Ordinary Day: Blindsided, Resilience, and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life'' (2018)
References
External links
*
Leigh Sales
at ''The Punch
''The Punch'' is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded On August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited was registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to engage in the business of publishing newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. It was designed to i ...
''
ABC Biography
Chat 10 Looks 3 podcast
at Melbourne University Publishing
Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne.
History
MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text books and stationery to students, and soon began publishing books itself. ...
"Book to tell torture tales when Hicks cannot"
by Penelope Debelle, ''The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' (4 April 2007)
"2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List"
"Sales Best Seller"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sales, Leigh
1973 births
Living people
ABC News (Australia) presenters
Australian columnists
Australian television journalists
Deakin University alumni
The Monthly people
Members of the Order of Australia
People from Brisbane
Queensland University of Technology alumni
Walkley Award winners
Australian women columnists
Australian women television journalists
Australian political journalists