Welcome to 3AW. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

3AW - Fairfax Radio Network

Monday February 13, 2012

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

Rally against court 'injustice'

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 10 August, 2010 - 4:52 PM
Hinch Rally

And once again they came. In the pouring rain, that one speaker welcomed as  'tears from heaven, they stood on the steps of Parliament House today. United by their grief and by anger and frustration about the lack of justice in our courts. Lenient sentences, suspended sentences, criminals’ names suppressed.

And so they came for a 'rally for justice'. Victim support groups united under an umbrella called the Coalition for Safer Communities.

The father whose son was murdered, a murder victim’s sister, a mother - whose daughter had her jaw broken, her eye blackened and four knife wounds in her back – who then sat in a court while the hulking killer plea-bargained down to a few years behind bars for a  sick joke of a crime called 'defensive homicide'.

Familiar faces were there from victim support groups: Janine Balding, Noel McNamara, Steve Medcraft. All hoping, yet again, that maybe in an election year they’ll get more action. But their scepticism is warranted.  They’ve heard it all before.

Some have met recently with Attorney-General Rob Hulls. Apparently he told them to wait until after the Hinch matter in the High Court.

A neat way to duck the issues. Especially when most of the magistrates and judges under attack have been appointed by you over the past ten years.

But, as I told the rally in the rain on Parliament House steps: that excuse won’t last for long. On the way to the protest I had a call from my lawyers. The High Court has decided to fast track my case involving a challenge that the current laws protecting criminals is unconstitutional and not in the public interest.

We have a hearing date. September 28.

I also told the rally that it is just wrong that rapists and child sex offenders can be released back into the community with the courts banning the publication of their names, photos, addresses or criminal history.

There are more than 25 of this putrid protected species now living in the community. Men like the one secretly dumped in Drouin. The town I named yesterday.

An intellectually disabled sex offender who spent time in jail for a sickening sexual, assault on a very young child. In jail he vowed he would offend again. And he’s been caught with a memory stick with hundreds of kiddie pics on it.

After being paroled for the sexual assault he was placed in a supposedly secure centre for sex offenders while being treated for his disorder but escaped.

Now he has been secretly placed in a country town close to a school, a kindergarten and a park.

As I said yesterday: I know the Government will say 'they have to be housed somewhere' and raise the issue of 'vigilantes'. But there has never been a vigilante attack in this country and in America thousands of sex offenders have their names, photos and addresses legally posted on websites. Why should these scumbags' rights exceed yours?

I admire those hardy souls who stood in the rain today to protest about a society where criminals seem to have more rights, more protection, than their victims. Remember: They were standing there for all of us.

PLAYING NOW: Denis Fitzgerald, chair of the Victorian Council of Churches Inter-Church Criminal Justice Taskforce speaks to Derryn Hinch.

3AW Drive with Hinch

Derryn Hinch Hinch is a former police rounds reporter, former foreign correspondent, former newspaper editor, former host of national current affairs shows, former novelist, former radio host in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, former MIDDAY host and former jailbird.

Blog comments Your Say

  • I would like to congratulate all who took place in this rally, including yourself Derryn. One thing that is so sad, is that it is all the same torn faces, the same vocal voices, the same victims & their families that take this seriously, and that is disgusting. How many more victims must mount up before we are all listened to. We are beside you all the way, and again thank those strong & brave that stood there and raised their concerns with their voices,..well done..!

    Bree Thursday 12 August, 2010 - 4:34 PM

  • Who does Jack Medcraft represent, not me, he insulted my church today.

    Why don't you look into his background, Karma Sutra wallpaper in his bedroom when he lived in Keilor.

    He left Keilor in an interesting way, now he has a son in interesting troubles in Sunbury

    You give this man too much air time, he is a one man band, take a look at the VOCAL website they don't want him.

    Amon Thursday 12 August, 2010 - 12:34 AM

  • Hi name is Jack Medcraft not Steve

    Amon Wednesday 11 August, 2010 - 2:12 PM

  • good work derryn you keep up your great work for the victims and rid our streets of the scum that fill our hearts with grief and sorrow, wreck our lives and then take our tax payers money to keep the lowlives in jail... Take care Derryn.
    Go pray and marry people and baptise children that is the job for you church people... and i am a christian.

    mordinan Wednesday 11 August, 2010 - 9:12 AM

Post a comment * Mandatory fields