Waleed Aly Wins Gold (And Hall Of Famer Noni Hazlehurst Brings Truth) At Totally Woke Logies

Waleed Aly scored the Gold Logie at last night’s Logie awards, at the end of a ceremony that seemed to stretch on for several eternities.

Aly trumped his fellow Project mate Carrie Bickmore, as well as Scott Cam, Lee Lin Chin, Essie Davis and Grant Denyer, to claim the honour.

The beloved co-host of The Project has become the first person of colour to take Australian television’s biggest prize.

This year, he and SBS’s much-memed Lee Lin Chin became the first ever non-white Gold Logie nominees. Their recognition was met with some baffling objections that inspired Australia’s racial discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, to call out the “casual racism that can pass for banter on Australian commercial TV.”

Aly referenced this in his acceptance speech, beginning with, “do not adjust your TV sets.”

“There’s nothing wrong with the picture. If you’re in the room, I’m sure there’s an Instagram filter you can use to return things to normal.”

On stage, he paid tribute to his wife Susan Carland, crediting the academic and lawyer as being both “funnier” and “sharper”, but doing work that is rarely recognised with statues.

#Logies pic.twitter.com/geplXxKsW8

— Susan Carland (@SusanCarland) May 8, 2016

At the end of a gracious, inclusive and cheekily funny ten-minute speech (that will no doubt be described as an “epic takedown” across social media), Aly accepted the award on behalf of anyone with an “unpronounceable” name that finds themselves unrepresented on Australian TV.

(He noted that someone in the room – going professionally by a different name for employment sake – introduced himself to Aly as ‘Mustafa’ not so long ago.)

“The truth is, you deserve more numerous and more worthy avatars than that, and I don’t know if and when that’s going to happen, but if tonight means anything… it’s that the Australian public, our audience, as far as they’re concerned, there’s absolutely no reason that can’t change.”

Play School’s Noni Hazlehurst, who had the best Aly reaction shots bar none, drew tears earlier in the evening accepting entry to the Logies Hall of Fame. In her speech, she spoke of how “no child is born a bigot”.

“The fact that I’m only the second woman to be given this honour is merely a reflection of the prevailing zeitgeist,” she said.

“As is the odious suggestion in some quarters that our esteemed colleagues Waleed Aly and Lee Lin Chin to be eligible to be considered for the gold is questionable.

“But things are clearly changing. Here we are. But they are changing glacially slowly. The great thing about glaciers is that if you aren't on them you go under. I've been riding that glacier for 40 years and I'm staying on top of it.”

Yes, despite all odds, this year’s Logies wound up totally woke.

Photo: Channel Nine.