Derryn Hinch

Derryn Nigel Hinch was born on 9 February 1944 in New Plymouth, in the Taranaki region of New Zealand. His father, Reginald (Dick) Hinch, was a Second World War veteran, and his mother was Betty (nee Hood). He had an older brother, Desmond, and two sisters, Barbara and Sandra.

At about 11 he learned to drive his father's milk truck and helped with deliveries when he was not at school. In a 2017 interview with The New Zealand Herald he revealed that he had been sexually molested by a family friend in his childhood home in New Plymouth in 1953, when he was nine. He later said this was not the reason for his long campaign against sex offenders.

Hinch attended New Plymouth Boys' High School, where he was by his own account a very competitive rugby player and a self-confessed smart arse who did not apply himself. He left school at 15 and learned journalism on the job, beginning as a cadet reporter at the Taranaki Herald in 1960.

Hinch began at the Taranaki Herald in New Plymouth in 1960, covering flower shows and court cases. In 1963 he travelled to Australia on the MS Wanganella and joined The Sun in Sydney on the police round. By 1966 he was a Fairfax foreign correspondent, and in 1972 he became bureau chief in New York, where he lived for 11 years. In 1969 he provided live commentary of the Apollo 11 launch for Sydney station 2GB, a broadcast he said still gave him goosebumps decades later. He returned to Sydney and edited The Sun from 1976 to 1977.

In 1978 he had a morning program on Melbourne's 3XY, and in 1979 he moved to 3AW, where his morning show was a ratings success for eight years. From 1988 to 1991 he hosted Hinch at Seven (retitled Hinch in 1989) on the Seven Network, and the show then ran on Network Ten from 1992 to 1994. He also appeared on Beauty and the Beast (1982 to 1983) and hosted The Midday Show on the Nine Network in 1994.

In the 1990s he presented talkback on Adelaide's 5DN, then returned to 3AW in 2000 to host Nightline, spent two years at 3AK from 2001, and came back to 3AW to host the drive program from 2003. His 3AW contract ended in 2012 and he was replaced by Tom Elliott. From September 2012 he was national public affairs commentator for the Seven Network, and from February 2015 he hosted Hinch Live on Sky News Australia. He also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, as himself in The Wog Boy and its 2022 sequel, and as the narrator in a 2008 Australian tour of The Rocky Horror Show.

Hinch founded Derryn Hinch's Justice Party in October 2015. Its platform included a public register of sex offenders, tougher sentences for violent and sexual offenders, no bail for people accused of serious violent offences, parole reform, tougher animal cruelty laws, equal rights regardless of race, religion or sexuality, and support for voluntary euthanasia.

At the July 2016 double dissolution election he was elected a Senator for Victoria at the age of 72. Against his objections, other senators allocated him a three-year term. In his maiden speech, which ran well past the usual time limit, he named convicted sex offenders under parliamentary privilege. In 2017 the Turnbull government reached a deal with him to cancel the passports of convicted paedophiles. He also helped relax the rules on media photography in the Senate.

He lost his seat at the 2019 federal election. His party won three seats in the 2018 Victorian election, but none in 2022, and the party was dissolved in March 2023. Hinch himself stood unsuccessfully for the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region in 2022, and in 2024 he withdrew from a planned run for Melbourne City Council, saying he could not afford the campaign.

Hinch was married five times to four women: editor Lana Wells, flight attendant Eve Carpenter, actor Jacki Weaver (whom he married twice) and Chanel Hayton, from whom he separated in 2012. With Weaver he appeared in the music video for John Farnham's You're the Voice. He had a five-year relationship with Natasha Chadwick, a former NSW Police detective and Sunday Night journalist, which ended in January 2018. He later rekindled his relationship with animal rights advocate Lynda Stoner, and the two remained close until his death.

He spoke openly about heavy drinking and about hitting rock bottom in the 1990s, when poor financial decisions left him with almost nothing in the bank. In 2006 he became seriously ill with cirrhosis of the liver, in 2010 he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer, and on 6 July 2011 he received a liver transplant at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne. While a senator he suffered a brain injury after a fall from an Uber in Melbourne. He identified as an atheist.

Hinch believed the public's right to know about sex offenders outweighed contempt and sub judice laws, and he lived by William Randolph Hearst's line that news is something somebody does not want published. He supported tougher sentencing and said judges and magistrates were out of touch with community expectations. He supported capital punishment, marriage equality and voluntary euthanasia, and he opposed the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Hinch was convicted of contempt of court three times. In 1987 he was fined and served 12 days in prison for publicly revealing the prior conviction of paedophile priest Michael Glennon while a trial was pending. The High Court of Australia upheld his conviction. Hinch called the episode the thing he was most proud of in his life.

In June 2011 he was convicted of breaching suppression orders over the names of two sex offenders and sentenced to five months of home detention. In October 2013 he was found guilty of contempt for revealing details of the criminal history of Adrian Ernest Bayley, the killer of Jill Meagher. He refused to pay the fine on principle, entered prison on 17 January 2014 and was released on 7 March 2014 after 50 days.

Beyond his contempt convictions, Hinch was often at the centre of public rows. In 2008 underworld figure Mick Gatto phoned his drive program and the call ended with a threat. He had a long feud with fellow broadcaster John Laws. In his 2004 book and on air in 2005 he admitted a sexual relationship with a girl he later learned was underage, and in 2013 he wrote that the woman had contacted him and said she was in fact 17 at the time. In 2017 questions were raised over an American Social Security number during the dual citizenship crisis, but he was not referred to the High Court. In May 2026 it emerged that he had written an explicit novel, Felicity, under a pen name decades earlier, which he said he regretted.

Hinch wrote more than a dozen books, including The Scrabble Book (1972), Death at Newport (1986), AIDS: Most of the Questions, Some of the Answers (1987), Death in Paradise (1989), The Derryn Hinch Diet (1991), That's Life (1992), The Ultimate Guide to Winning Scrabble (2001), The Fall and Rise of Derryn Hinch (2004), You Are So Beautiful (2006), I Beat the Booze and You Can Too (2009), Human Headlines: My 50 Years in the Media (2010), A Human Deadline (2012), Hinch vs Canberra (2017) and Unfinished Business: Life of a Senator (2020). In 2025 he said he was working on new chapters for his life story.

Hinch was one of the most powerful broadcasters in Australia in the 1980s and one of the most recognisable faces on television in the late 1980s and 1990s. Inducting him into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2018, Ray Martin called him a colourful, megaphone-campaigning, groundbreaking journalist and a legend of Australian journalism. 3AW described him as a titan of Australian broadcasting. Victorian premier Jacinta Allan said he left behind real change for victims and survivors who had gone unheard. His charity work included serving as chair of Variety Victoria, and he created Variety's heart-and-hat logo.

Australian Commercial Radio Hall of Fame (2010). Australian Media Hall of Fame (2018), inducted by Ray Martin. Ambassador and Life Member of Variety, and former chair of Variety Victoria. Honoured with a Victorian State Funeral in July 2026.

Hinch had been in poor health after a fall, and he died in his sleep on the morning of 10 July 2026 at his apartment on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, aged 82. Friends said it was the way he had wished to go. His death was announced on 3AW. Tributes came from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, opposition leader Angus Taylor, Victorian premier Jacinta Allan and many broadcasters. A State Funeral Service was held at 12pm on Monday 20 July 2026 at The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne. At the family's request, memorial donations were directed to Variety, the Children's Charity. A specific medical cause of death has not been made public.