Veteran journalist Kerry O'Brien has warned the ABC is being punished because of an "ideological obsession", in an impassioned Logies speech that saw him turn the crosshairs on his own industry for failing to "cut through fake news".

Key points: Kerry O'Brien said cuts to the ABC were "driven more by the desire to punish"

Kerry O'Brien said cuts to the ABC were "driven more by the desire to punish" The veteran journalist said the media industry must share responsibility for the "great failures of our time", including climate change

The veteran journalist said the media industry must share responsibility for the "great failures of our time", including climate change He described the failure to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia as a "glaring gap in this nation's story"

The former Four Corners and 7.30 presenter was on Sunday night inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame, and used the occasion to defend the national broadcaster in the wake of successive budget cuts, which he said were "driven more by the desire to punish and by an ideological obsession than because the public broadcaster was inefficient".

"The ABC is still forging its way through strong headwinds, probably never threatened more than it is today by a combination of forces — cash-strapped in a totally disrupted, digitally driven industry and still confronting the same, sad, ideological (arguments)."

Referencing this month's raid on the ABC's Ultimo office by Australian Federal Police, O'Brien urged the nation to ensure the public broadcaster — which he described as "one of the most precious institutions we have" — was not being diminished.

"And now, even the [Australian] Federal Police, some of whom have themselves leaked to us in the past, have seen fit to raid the place," he said.

The tone then took a marked turn as the Walkley Award-winning reporter homed in on his own industry.

While lauding the role of journalism, O'Brien said the media also needed to "share the responsibility for the great failures of our time" — including climate change.

"We are still stuck in the mire of drab, dishonest arguments that will come at great cost to future generations," O'Brien said.

"We, the journalists, have not cut through the fake news effectively. We have not properly held politicians to account."

The failure to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, O'Brien continued, remained "one big glaring gap in this nation's story".

While lamenting the "awful racism this country is capable of", he said the Uluru Statement — which endorsed a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous representative body — offered hope for the future.

"We all have an opportunity together in this term of the Federal Parliament to make a genuine effort to understand and support what is embodied in the Uluru Statement From the Heart," he said.

"We like to be seen as one nation made up of many parts. Now is the time to prove it."