What we're talking about

Troy on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I have seen this family fighting day after day for months trying to get their kids/siblings back home. The dedication and ... more
Pauline on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' DHS have destroyed my own family. They failed in their duty of care to provide a baby moniter for the deaf , thousands of ... more
Christine on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' isn't it funny how DHS don't recognise the psychological effects of domestic violence on children and continue to allow ... more
Warrior princess on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' There is a family In the Cairns Area who are Foster Carers.Atherton Child Safety have threatened the carers and own ... more
duncan on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' i have spent time with this family. it is a house full of love. "mum", grandfather and older sblings.this cannot be an issue ... more
Tracey on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Family Law is different from the rest of the law in this country.. Ie. Family Law is based on probability: ie if it might ... more
carol annetta on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' having known this family for some time i am disgusted with the treatment she has received. it seems more of a witch hunt ... more
Maureen Hillary on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Derryn,I have counselled traumatized parents as a result of DHS staff.There are great staff workers who care but they ... more
Janet Tavener on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I am a visitor to this country.My attention was drawn to the case of these children and their foster mother by a relative of ... more
sam on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Happening in Tasmania also.Wewon a court case over 8 months ago and due process still hasn't been done.We spent 17,000 ... more
Anne Glover on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I just cannot believe what the DHS has put the Foster Mother, and the children through - I thought the DHS was supposed to ... more
Tracey on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' DHS are the most disgraceful organization I have ever had the displeasure of becoming involved with. They are so ... more
Vicki on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Hi Derryn,I have known this carer since primary school, she has always put others above herself. Being a carer myself I know ... more
Gran'ma Pam on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' As any of us with any sense know, these children should NEVER have been taken from this lady (mum) in the first place, they ... more
Dominic Lombardo on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' I see my daughter every six months DHS are conducting a vendetta against me I have not been told why I can only see her ... more
cassy houghton on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Hello Derryn,Firstly i would like to thankyou for your support and the willingness to help this beautiful family.I ... more
Warrior princess on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Im a carer also in Qld. I see this happen way too much from our Government. They are starting to use Carers own children as ... more
paul on "I'll pay the fee," says Hinch I believe what Liberal Party has done is stupid. But I feel for candidates like Joh Bauch and James Buonopane who want to ... more
Andrea on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' Why are these public servants allowed to blatantly flout the law without the same consequences the rest of society faces? I ... more
birth mother on Help Hinch fight DHS 'pinheads' i am the birth morther of these 4 children and i just want to say dhs dont care they just want the kids in care so they can ... more

Michelle's father the latest to speak

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 11 June, 2010 - 4:19 PM

PLAYING NOW: Michelle's grand-father speaks to Hinch.

HINCH: There’s an old saying in the news business: ‘When you are being run out of town – pretend it’s a parade and you’re leading it.’

And that’s what the Herald Sun has done today after we revealed on this program yesterday that the heart-rending story of their single mum, Michelle and her two kids, being forced to live in a car on cold winter nights, wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be.

Michelle actually has a shared custody arrangement with the children’s father who saw his son at a soccer game last Sunday and picked him up from school as part of the regular 50-50 co-parenting today.

As I said yesterday: To put it nicely, Michelle didn’t actually tell the full story. And Melbourne you’ve been had. Taken for a ride.

The first the father knew about his young kids sleeping in a car – and having their names and photos splashed across the news - was when he was alerted by a friend yesterday morning and read it in the newspaper.

But the Herald Sun rolls on today with another beaming photo of Michelle and kids and the headline ‘Thank You for our Home’.

And the story goes on about Michelle’s nightmare and the sympathy and the boundless generosity of Melbourne people with offers of accommodation and money and other help.

It’s even the Hot Topic on the letters page under the headline ‘Home in their Hearts.’

And the letters are touching. Lines like ‘Joseph and Mary could find no place for their baby Jesus to be born but a kindly innkeeper offered them his stable.’ And ‘I was driving to work when I heard this story on the radio. My heart poured out to the mother and her kids’.

It is true, radio stations, including 3AW, jumped all over this heart-breaker of a story. And the TV news. Channels Seven and Ten took it all as gospel. Nine ran the other side of the story quoting the children’s father from this program. And I’m told so did Today Tonight.

But the Herald Sun doggedly ploughs on. I wonder how the letter writer who said ‘I cried when I read this story’ feels today when she reads – buried in the follow up story - the quote from Cameron, the father ‘Had I been told I would have taken the kids in a heartbeat. I would like the public to be aware and assured that the children will have adequate accommodation as of today when they come to me as part of the 50-59 care arrangement’.

Still. The Herald Sun gets its story. Michelle gets her fifteen minutes of fame – and accommodation and gifts not easily available to other single mums - and life goes on.

Footnote:

I have received angry emails from Michelle’s father Alex. He obviously knows the way around the media because he writes:

"I am furious that Cameron has gone on to Derryn Hinch and spun him a lot of absolute rubbish. If I don't hear from you ASAP. I will take this to 60 minutes."

"My daughter is not a thief, a stripper nor does she have sex with people in front of her children’. Scuse me? I didn’t say she was or is. He then says: "Don't get me wrong I'm not sticking up for my daughter but there are always two sides to every story." But he then makes some very defamatory comments about the father. I suspect this will all eventually be thrashed out in the Family Court. I just think it is unfair that two innocent little kids have been paraded around for the news cameras.

Has Melbourne been 'duped'?

EXCLUSIVE: Hinch says the 'sad story' of Michelle, which has dominated Melbourne media coverage today, is not all that it seems. Hear the father's side of the story, only on 3AW, which basically casts dispersions on the initial 'heart tugger' the Herald Sun proudly ran in its paper.

Blog comments

she is like the boat people! trying to short cut the system! wait in line like the rest of us! what mother lets her children sleep in a car when the father has a home they can go to? she is full of that stuff that comes out of a bulls rear end!

graham Tuesday 15 June, 2010 - 2:44 AM
It still highlights the fact that our housing has been used as a way of maximising profits for the pro-growth industries, including land developers, builders, developers and the finance industries, with support from our State government. They have forced the price of housing beyond the reach of even professional families, let alone single mothers! Until people realize the cost of our unnatural population growth rate, it will continue. We have Australian citizens becoming refugees in their own country.

VivKay Sunday 13 June, 2010 - 8:23 AM
Never the less this woman needed help and support, and the only way she got all of your attention was to shame herself. As a mother you do whatever it takes to give the children a fair go in there life. The media are blood suckers, and once they bleed you dry they demoralize you... Shame on you all. Just help her that what she needs, don't disgrace her she has children that will pay for the medias slander...

Sonia Friday 11 June, 2010 - 11:43 PM