{"id":790616,"date":"2026-07-10T04:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790616\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T04:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:14:18","slug":"derryn-hinch-the-human-headline-former-senator-and-media-figure-dies-aged-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790616\/","title":{"rendered":"Derryn Hinch, the ‘human headline’, former senator and media figure, dies aged 82"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derryn Hinch, the outspoken \u2014 and at times controversial \u2014 media figure and former senator, has died aged 82.<\/p>\n

The barnstorming journalist was known for his distinctive broadcast style, honed over decades in the media, as well as his law-breaking crusades to expose sex offenders that earned him several stints in jail.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster’s death was confirmed on-air on his former radio station, 3AW.<\/p>\n

The ABC confirmed the former senator had died in his sleep this morning.<\/p>\n

\"Hinch,<\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch was known for his highly opinionated approach to broadcasting. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

Former colleague Peter Ford told 3AW Hinch was an important figure in the history of the radio station.<\/p>\n

“It is one of those moments when you think that was an extraordinary life and career,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s an amazing story of somebody who, as a young guy in rural New Zealand, had dreams of getting into journalism and slowly but surely, boy, did he do that.<\/p>\n

“Apart from having a really good journalist’s mind for a story, he knew how to write a story, how to present a story \u2026 he knew a good yarn when he heard it.<\/p>\n

“Now that wasn’t to say, of course, that he wasn’t provocative; he stirred the pot a lot, he upset people a lot, and he saw that almost as being validation of doing his job well.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch holding his official Senate portrait. (Facebook: Derryn Hinch)<\/p>\n

Denis O’Kane had a long working relationship with Hinch since the late 1970s , and remained close friends with him over the decades.<\/p>\n

He told 3AW that he saw Hinch recently.<\/p>\n

“Derryn hadn’t changed, a lot of fun, serious guy to a lot of people but also when you’re out with him, he was so much fun,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A great man \u2026 and we love him very much.”<\/p>\n

Loud and opinionated from the start<\/p>\n

In early 2025, Hinch was sitting in a cafe in Melbourne when he was approached by a woman.<\/p>\n

She wanted to read his 2010 autobiography about his then 50 years in the media, Human Headlines, but her local library had a waiting list to borrow it.<\/p>\n

The conversation made Hinch realise how many more chapters needed to be added to his life story.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a little bit transpire \u2014 been to jail, been a senator, so a few things have happened,” Hinch told the ABC at the time.<\/p>\n

Born in New Zealand, Hinch began his long career at The Taranaki Herald in 1960, at the age of 15.<\/p>\n

Just a few years later, he moved to Australia, taking on the police round at The Sun newspaper in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Over the next six decades, he landed roles in nearly every arm of the media \u2026 and often told people he was sacked from “16 or 17” of them.<\/p>\n

His time working for Fairfax in New York in the late 1960s and 70s was noted in a speech delivered by his contemporary, Ray Martin, at Hinch’s 2018 induction into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Martin revealed that Hinch’s trademark style of being loud and highly opinionated was established early in his career.<\/p>\n

“He flaunted more company credit cards and pulled off more front-page scoops than any other compatriot,” Martin told the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Martin recalled being taken to task by his own ABC editors for not having as many contacts inside the UN as Hinch, or the same headline-grabbing quotes from within its corridors.<\/p>\n

“Whenever I challenged the veracity of some of those diplomatic sources \u2014 as I occasionally did \u2014 Hinch’s retort would be to ask somewhat rhetorically, ‘Listen, did your story lead the bulletin? Did it make the front page of the First Edition? No? Well, end of section, Sunshine.'”<\/p>\n

From fame to infamy\u00a0<\/p>\n

While in the US, Hinch provided live commentary of the Apollo 11 launch for Sydney radio station 2GB in 1969.<\/p>\n

A snippet of the broadcast was replayed during an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne breakfast hosts Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“That still gives me goosebumps when I hear that,” he told the pair.<\/p>\n

“I was a real radio rookie. I was a print journo. It wasn’t a bad way to start my radio career, though.”<\/p>\n

Over the decades, Hinch drifted in and out of talkback radio in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide \u2014 including ratings-winning slots on 3AW.<\/p>\n

He appeared as a panellist on the TV talk show Beauty and the Beast, hosted The Midday Show on the Nine Network and, in more recent years, was a commentator for various news programs on Seven and Sky News.<\/p>\n

But it was his eponymous current affairs shows on Seven and Ten that made Hinch one of the most recognisable faces on television in the late 1980s and 90s.<\/p>\n

He was equally known for his unabashed opinions and his catchphrases \u2014 “That’s life” and “Shame, shame, shame” \u2014 which were most famously parodied by Steve Vizard on the comedy show Fast Forward.<\/p>\n

\"Derryn<\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch’s presentation style and catchphrases led to fame and comedy parodies. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He also became infamous for flouting contempt-of-court laws regarding sex offenders, which saw him convicted three times.<\/p>\n

He was fined and jailed for 12 days in 1987 for identifying paedophile Catholic priest Michael Glannon while a criminal trial was pending.<\/p>\n

He spent five months in home detention<\/a> in 2011 for breaching suppression orders over two other offenders.<\/p>\n

A few years later, he opted to spend 50 days in prison rather than pay a $100,000 fine for airing details about the criminal history of Adrian Ernest Bailey, the killer of ABC employee Jill Meagher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Derryn<\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch was fined $100,000 by the Supreme Court of Victoria for contempt of court after he breached a suppression order, but opted for prison rather than pay. (AAP: Julian Smith)<\/p>\n

Hinch claimed the public’s right to know about sex offenders was more important than laws of contempt and sub judice.<\/p>\n

Looking back on his time on the inside, he told triple j Hack: “People get it too cushy in jail. I had more quality meat in the week than most pensioners would get in the month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Judges and magistrates are out of touch with community expectations on sentencing.”<\/p>\n

\"Derryn<\/p>\n

Hinch addressed the media outside the prison fence upon his release, saying the public’s right to information about sex offenders was more important than the law. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Social justice issues were of such importance to Hinch that he decided to enter politics at the age of 72.<\/p>\n

A public sex offender register was one of the key platforms of his campaign when running for the Senate.<\/p>\n

He was successful, serving from 2016 to 2019.<\/p>\n

The oldest first-time senator, he was credited with the introduction of a new law restricting the overseas travel of convicted paedophiles.<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

The parents of murdered Queensland boy Daniel Morcombe, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, joined Derryn Hinch at a press conference calling for a public register of sex offenders. (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)<\/p>\n

He was also instrumental in relaxing the rules around the types of photos the media could take in the Senate, even though he himself had been photographed asleep in parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch calls time on political party<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran broadcaster and politician says there is “no point” in the Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party continuing to exist, after none of its MPs were returned in Victoria’s November election.<\/p>\n

He formed his own political party, the Derryn Hinch Justice Party, with his candidates winning three seats in the 2018 Victorian election.<\/p>\n

The party advocated for tougher sentences for sexual and violent offences.<\/p>\n

None of the candidates were successful in the 2022 Victorian state election, leading to him dissolving the party, which he described as “one of the saddest moments of my life”.<\/p>\n

Through sickness and in health<\/p>\n

Hinch wrote more than a dozen books, and revealed in 2025 that he was indeed working on those additions to his autobiography.<\/p>\n

Among the memoirs and tell-alls were guides to everything from winning the board game Scrabble to coping with grief, heartbreak and illness.<\/p>\n

On the last two subjects, he was well versed.<\/p>\n

The marriage equality supporter was wed five times, including to theatre, TV and film actor Jacki Weaver, with whom he appeared in the film clip for John Farnham’s hit song You’re the Voice.<\/p>\n

In an ABC interview, he recalled an amusing encounter with the young actor who played the couple’s daughter in the video clip.<\/p>\n

“When I was campaigning for the Senate, a woman walked up to me and said, ‘Oh Derryn, hi. I’m your daughter!’ which is what you don’t need to hear when you’re on the campaign trail,” he laughed.<\/p>\n

Hinch hospitalised after fall<\/a><\/p>\n

Derryn Hinch says he had two glasses of wine but was not “pissed” when he fell from an Uber in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

It was while he was a senator that Hinch had one of several medical scares, suffering a brain injury after falling from an Uber in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

A revelation that he had consumed two glasses of wine before the incident attracted some criticism, as Hinch had been the recipient of a liver transplant in 2011 after being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and inoperable liver cancer.<\/p>\n

“I drink occasionally, and I’m not stupid,” he told Sky News at the time.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to live your life.”<\/p>\n

His contemporary, Ray Martin, provided what could be considered the last word on Hinch’s six decades in the media while inducting him into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2018.<\/p>\n

“Senator Derryn Hinch has been a colourful, megaphone-campaigning, ground-breaking journalist. He has always pursued the story as ambitiously and doggedly as the headline. He has long been amongst the very best tabloid reporters in Australia, a special skill that should be recognised and rewarded. He has also consistently been on the ‘decent’ side of most public debates.<\/p>\n

“Derryn Nigel Hinch truly deserves the accolades. He is a legend of Australian journalism.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derryn Hinch, the outspoken \u2014 and at times controversial \u2014 media figure and former senator, has died aged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,372624,42665,372622,372623,134,268531,1685,9118,36348,11790,372625],"class_list":["post-790616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-media-hall-of-fame","tag-broadcaster","tag-derryn-hinch","tag-derryn-hinchs-justice-party","tag-entertainment","tag-human-headline","tag-media","tag-obituary","tag-ray-martin","tag-senate","tag-thats-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}