Kerry O’Brien goes into Logies Hall Of Fame

Kerry O’Brien has been inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame — but didn’t walk away without attacking ABC budget cuts, recent AFP raids or make a joke involving Karl Stefanovic.

Veteran TV journalist Kerry O’Brien has been honoured with an induction in the Logies Hall of Fame.

With a career spanning more than 50 years, the Brisbane-born trailblazer and former host of ABC’s Four Corners notched up six Walkley awards and has worked for every free-to-air television network.

In accepting his award, he joked: “And can I just say how pleased I am not to be receiving this award posthumously.”

He then went on to say he was always in his “natural home at the ABC”.

“Because the pursuit of excellence wasn’t just permitted, it was expected,” he said.

“As the importance of journalism became more and more obvious to me, absolutely fundamental to a healthy democracy despite its many imperfections — that’s the many imperfections of journalism as well as democracy — it also added more meaning to my life.”

He then criticised budget cuts to the ABC. O’Brien recently compared police raids on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst’s home and the ABC’s Sydney office as “two big steps down the road” to authoritarianism in Australia.

“There have been the tough times, the budget cuts to the ABC — again, and again, and again,” he said.

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Kerry O'Brien poses with the Logie after being inducted into the Hall Of Fame during the 61st Annual TV WEEK Logie Awards. Picture: Getty

Kerry O'Brien, who has been at the helm of the ABC TV show 'The 7.30 Report' for 10 years, in Sydney.

“Driven more by a desire to punish and buy an ideological obsession than because the public broadcaster was inefficient.”

He also hit out at the recent raids on the ABC in Sydney by the Australian Federal Police.

“Now even the Federal Police, some of whom have themselves been linked to us in the past, have seen fit to raid the place,” he said.

“Yet as I sat here tonight and watched nomination after nomination after nomination for the ABC, including for Most Popular category which rely on a public vote, I felt so much better.”

He called on all current ABC employees to keep their “heads held high” and their “eye firmly fix odd delivering programs of relevance, quality and integrity for people in every corner of Australia and those same people will repay your loyalty with theirs as they always have”.

“And to the rest of the country, don’t ever again allow politicians to diminish the public broadcaster. It is one of the most precious institutions we have,” he said.

O’Brien also paid tribute to his wife Sue Javes who has been by his side for 40 years and made a joke that referenced Karl Stefanovic.

Kerry O'Brien interviewing Paul Keating at his book launch.

“Sue James, my wife and best friend for 40 years, warned me tonight not to say how much she had helped me in my career,” he said.

“As Karl Stefanovic had said here at the Logies a few years ago, because it would probably cost him a couple of million.”

The 73-year-old spent more than 30 years in public broadcasting as one of the ABC’s chief editorial leaders, with career highlights including being the first presenter of late-night news analysis program Lateline and the editor and presenter of the National 7.30 Report for 15 years.

Having hosted Four Corners from 2011 to 2015, O’Brien’s projects have included authoring two books — a biography of former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating and a memoir.

Veteran journalist Kerry O'Brien, host of ABC's '7:30 Report', at ABC TV studios at Southbank in Melbourne, for his last appearance as host before his retirement.

O’Brien began his career as a news cadet at Channel 9 in Brisbane in 1966 after graduating from the Queensland University of Technology and went on to forge his journalistic credentials on shows such as This Day Tonight.

He has honorary doctorates from the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology.

O’Brien’s induction follows that of 60 Minutes last year, Kerri-Anne Kennerley in 2017, Noni Hazlehurst in 2016 and Home And Away in 2015.

Originally published as Kerry O’Brien goes into Logies Hall Of Fame