Derryn Hinch, one of Australia’s most recognisable broadcasters of the 80s, 90s and noughties, has died.
The ‘Human Headline’ was a regular figure on TV and radio for decades.
For generations of listeners, Hinch was a voice that figured constantly in morning and drive slots on Melbourne’s 3AW and on TV.
Born in New Zealand, Hinch became a force to be reckoned with in Australia in the 90s, with his eponymous show Hinch.
Always courting controversy, he took on sex offenders—after suffering a childhood as the victim of a sexual predator—and took on issues that others found uncomfortable.
Hinch took his cause to politics, becoming a senator, setting up a party in 2016 that he would later fold, and never lost the fight behind the microphone.
He was a staple of 3AW for decades, but was battling with declining mobility in recent months after suffering multiple falls at his Melbourne apartment last year. He had a second lease of life after a liver transplant but his later health conditions caught up with the larger than life character.
Hinch documented his health struggles on social media and posted a picture of his brother Des before his death.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led a long line of tributes to the New-Zealand born journalist, who he said “lived a life rich in colour and free from fear”.
“As an interviewer, investigator and presenter he was much more than ‘the Human Headline’ he had a sense of the deeper story and the courage to cover it, come what may,” Albanese said in a post to X.
“He held to those same instincts as a senator and he fought illness with that same bravery.
“My sincere condolences to his family and his many friends.”
He will go down as an icon in Australian broadcasting. Unashamedly dogged, passionate and forthright with subjects, whether it was on TV or radio. He will be a figure that few he grew up watching him and listening to him will ever forget.
They don’t make them that way anymore. RIP Hinch, The Human Headline.
