“Time to pass the baton”: Leigh Sales to depart as 7:30 host

Leigh Sales is stepping down as presenter of 7.30, after nearly 12 years in the role, citing change, family and the pressures of the role.

She will depart in June but remain with ABC in a new role and lead ABC’s upcoming federal election night coverage.

An announcement from @leighsales. #abc730 pic.twitter.com/hy01mUsYyD

— abc730 (@abc730) February 10, 2022

Sales was appointed 7.30 anchor in December 2010 and has covered the terms of five Prime Ministers, anchored nine federal budgets and two federal elections – with a third coming up. She has interviewed hundreds of leaders, newsmakers, celebrities and other people of note, at home and abroad – including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tonight.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson said, “Leigh’s integrity, intellect and courage are evident in everything she does,” he 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.”

ABC News Acting Director Gavin Fang said Sales, “We would love to have her stay in that role, but it’s in Leigh’s nature to seek fresh challenges, and it’s exciting for everyone to see what she’ll do next in journalism,” he said.

“7.30 plays a vital role in the service ABC News provides to audiences and the presenter job is one of the most important in the Australian media — and one of the toughest and most highly scrutinised.

“We’ll start thinking about a new presenter down the track. For the next few months we’ll just enjoy every moment of having Leigh on the program.”

John Lyons, ABC’s Head of Investigative and In-Depth Journalism: “For almost 12 years Leigh has anchored the ABC’s nightly flagship program. Her fairness, integrity, work ethic and journalistic rigour have shone through. Leigh is without question one of the fairest and most decent people in journalism. Her editorial leadership has inspired both her colleagues and the millions of Australians who have watched both 7.30 and the ABC’s federal election coverage over those years.”

Justin Stevens, 7.30 Executive Producer: “Leigh espouses the finest virtues of public interest journalism. Year after year she has carried the weight and responsibility of fronting 7.30 with fairness, independence, impartiality and a forthright questioning of those in power without fear or favour – and Australian democracy is the better for it.

“Leigh is also an immensely supportive colleague and friend. She has played a key role in ensuring 7.30’s culture of strong public interest journalism with a team of formidable journalists in front of and behind the camera.

“We’ll treasure the next four months before she starts a new chapter at the ABC. She leaves this role at the top of her game.”

Statement by Leigh Sales:

Before we go tonight I wanted you to hear some news from me personally, and it’s that I’ve asked my bosses at the ABC to allow me to step down from anchoring 7.30 later this year, once the federal election is over.

I was appointed to the job on the 3rd of December 2010, so this my 12th year in the seat. That was five Prime Ministers ago! It was so long ago that Donald Trump was still just a guy with a bad orange hairdo hosting The Apprentice.

There’s 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 and to take a break. The end of an election cycle feels like a good time to move onto something new at the ABC.

I hope it’s been obvious that I’ve always approached this job with one goal — and that is to ask frank questions of people in power, without fear or favour, that a fair-minded, reasonable person with some common sense watching at home might like to ask if they were sitting in my position.

I’ve tried to shut down wafflers, call out bullshit, hold powerful people to account, expose lies, incompetence and exaggeration in all political parties and on all issues, and present facts even when they’re unpopular or inconvenient. I have truly tried my absolute hardest on behalf of you at home to do that every single time I’ve sat at the desk.

Anchoring 7.30 has been the most amazing job and I will never stop being grateful for the opportunities it’s given me, all the incredible people I’ve interviewed. The celebrities come and go but you never forget people like Matthew Low, whose wife was killed in the Dreamworld roller-coaster 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.

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.

While it’s truly been an unbelievable privilege to host 7.30, it’s also a demanding job that comes with enormous responsibility and pressure and scrutiny. Anchoring a nightly current affairs show for so long has been a marathon but every day, it’s a sprint as well.

When I first started, I didn’t have children, and now I have two boys aged ten and eight. They’ve only ever known their mum at work four nights a week. They want me home with them before 830pm and I don’t think that’s too much for two little boys to ask. And they’re two beautiful little boys too.

So many viewers come up to me in public, write to me, send me messages on social media and I want to say thank you to every single one of you. The ABC is so often under fire and it means a lot to all of us to know that the public supports what we do.

The team at 7.30 is unparalleled in the media and I could not have more admiration or more gratitude for what they all do. It is an incredibly important program, there is no other show that does what 7.30 does night after night. I am so proud of what our team does and I know the program is going to keep going from strength to strength, as it always has.

I feel overwhelmed when I think of all the things working at 7.30 has given me and I’m looking forward to having a good break and then figuring out what I do next at the ABC. I’m really thankful to my ABC bosses over the years, and my colleagues, our viewers and the people who have the courage to trust us with their stories.

Thank you and I’ll be around for a while yet, so please keep watching, my friends.

See you on Monday. Goodnight.