Matt Okine laments lack of female nominees in ARIA Awards speech that’s not aired in broadcast

COMEDIAN Matt Okine used his speech at the ARIA Awards to call out sexism in the industry, but it was strangely absent from the televised broadcast.

COMEDIAN and Triple J breakfast co-host Matt Okine used his speech at the ARIA Awards to call out sexism in the industry, but it was strangely omitted from the televised broadcast.

Winning a gong for best comedy album, the 30-year-old pointed out during his acceptance speech there were no women nominated in his category and he thought that was unacceptable.

“I didn’t feel great reading that list of people,” he told the audience.

He later told reporters he felt “silly” about his speech.

“I thought, hold on there’s no women in my category. Now I feel silly about it,” he said.

“People might say that’s something you would say for attention, but I feel like, ‘what should I do, just be passive’?

“A lot of guys my age think you’re doing enough by not doing anything bad.”

The awards ceremony was prerecorded earlier on Thursday evening before it was broadcast to Australian audiences on Network Ten later in the night.

And it seems, for some reason, Okine’s speech didn’t make the final edit of what went to air.

Returning from a commercial break, it was acknowledged that Okine had won, but his speech was not broadcast.

A Network Ten spokesperson told news.com.au: “The decisions on which awards are broadcast are made by the ARIA Board, not by Network Ten.”

An ARIA spokesperson told news.com.au that, along with several other categories, the comedy category was never going to be included in the televised broadcast.

“Best Comedy Release was never scheduled to go to air. There are eight awards in total that don’t make it to the broadcast because of time restrictions, however each of these off-air awards have been posted on ARIA’s official Twitter Accounts,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The other categories that didn’t go to air were Best Independent, Best Adult Contemporary, Best Blues & Roots, Best Urban Album, Best Country Album, Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album and Best Children’s Album.

Despite not being televised, the video footage was uploaded to the official ARIA Twitter account.

Winner: Best Comedy: @mattokine - Live At The Enmore Theatre #ARIAs https://t.co/Z0aIWS83d7

— ARIA (@ARIA_Official) November 26, 2015

When Okine took to the stage with his Triple J co-host Alex Dyson later in the evening, Dyson made a joke about not going on another “rant”.

Viewers and fans took to social media to express disappointment that the speech wasn’t aired.

Looks like the telecast cut-out the 'controversial' @mattokine speech... Poor form. #ARIAs

— Leon Sjogren (@Leonsjogren) November 26, 2015

"Yeah let's cut out the only intelligent thing anyone's gonna say all night out of the broadcast"-#ARIAs @mattokine https://t.co/s1elQL09lJ

— Dave (@davegrohlbloom) November 26, 2015

Fine to cut @mattokine about gender equality, but lets live cross to 5SOS looking like slobs to annouce their OZ tour. Get it right #ARIAs

— Silvia Pinneri (@siilvp) November 26, 2015

Those who were sitting in the live audience at The Star in Sydney praised Okine’s comments. And some even speculated it would not make it to the final broadcast.

Matt Okine says after calling out lack of females "if I don't get invited back to the #ARIAs that's fine". Wonder if that will make it to TV

— cameron adams (@cameron_adams) November 26, 2015

Omg @mattokine won Best Comedy Release at the #ARIAs - also gave the best speech I think I'll hear all night 💜🙏🏼💥 pic.twitter.com/cf7JGHCD7I

— KLP (@klpmusic) November 26, 2015

Great stuff @mattokine on bringing up the fact that no women were nominated for Best Comedy release, needs attention #ARIAs

— Lawrence Champness (@champy) November 26, 2015

Matt Okine wins best comedy & makes the point there wasn't a single woman nominated. It's 2015. Nervous silence from the power seats #ARIAs

— Bernard Zuel (@BernardZuel) November 26, 2015