Each year, Deakin recognises, acknowledges and celebrates our amazing alumni around the world who have achieved outstanding successes in their communities or professions.
Leigh Sales is the host of ABC’s 7:30 and a Deakin alumni award winner. This is her story.
Leigh Sales AM – Journalist and Host, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award
Master of Arts (International Relations), 2001 (now Master of International Relations)
One of Australia’s most respected and influential journalists, Leigh Sales combines her deep curiosity about the world with formidable interviewing and analytical skills.
A champion of freedom of the press and public engagement in politics, in 2019 Leigh was awarded an Order of Australia for services to broadcasting.
Since joining the ABC in 1995, Leigh has held many senior positions within Australia’s public broadcaster, including her role as national security correspondent and as co-host of its national current affairs program, Lateline.
After postgraduate studies as a Deakin online student in International Relations, Leigh was the ABC’s Washington correspondent from 2001 to 2005 and won a prestigious Walkley Award in 2005 for her reporting on Guantanamo Bay. She was also nominated for a Walkley Award for her frontline coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
In 2011 Leigh was announced as host of 7.30, ABC TV’s flagship national news and current affairs program. Her widely praised style in interviews with people from all walks of life comes in part, she says, from asking the questions she thinks someone watching at home would most want to hear.
Despite her daily deadlines, Leigh is also a podcaster and the author of three acclaimed books. Her most recent book, Any Ordinary Day (Penguin, 2019), explores the resilience people discover in the wake of life-changing tragedies.
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Leigh studied the Master of International Relations (formerly the Master of Arts (International Relations)) at Deakin. Explore international relations to find out more.
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