Derryn Hinch, the outspoken and at times controversial broadcaster and former senator, is being farewelled at a state funeral service in Melbourne.
Hinch, who spent decades in the media, died at the age of 82 on July 10.
Follow our live coverage of the service.
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Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 2:00pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 2:00pm
Goddaughter peforms song written for Derryn
Ellie O'Connell has returned to the stage and performs an original song.
It was written for Derryn Hinch.
She becomes emotional as she sings the last few lines: "Hear your words, Mr Derryn Hinch, you tried."
She stops by his casket as she exits the stage.
(ABC News)Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:53pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:53pm
Weaver becomes emotional
By Melissa Brown
Weaver resumes her own tribute with a brief and personal farewell to Hinch.
She said she she loved him "from the very start to the very end".
She became tearful as she wished him a "good night, sweet dreams".
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:52pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:52pm
Stepson's tribute read to funeral
By Melissa Brown
Weaver thanks Hinch for being a good stepfather to her son, Dylan Walters, and reads a tribute he wrote.
He talks about meeting Hinch when he was 10 years old, describing his outlandish clothing and meticulously groomed beard.
He says after Hinch's liver transplant, they were discussing his drinking and what it lead to.
He says Hinch admitted his error with alcohol.
Jacki Weaver delivers a video tribute (ABC News)"You taught me the importance of honesty, integrity and standing up for what you believe in," Weaver says, reading from her son's tribute.
"You were intelligent, passionate, cheerful and loving as well as obstinate, grumpy, impossible and frustrating, with a self-destructive streak which mystified your nearest and dearest as to where it came from, and we loved you for all of it."
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:45pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:45pm
Jacki Weaver delivers video eulogy
By Melissa Brown
Derryn Hinch was once married to Australian actor Jacki Weaver.
She could not attend the state funeral today but filmed her eulogy, beginning by describing herself as "Derryn's third wife and close friend for almost half a century".
She reveals Hinch texted her the night he died.
She says she wished to acknowledge "sincerely and warmly" all the women Hinch had loved.
"I won't mention you individually. We don't have the time," she said.
"And in the immortal words of Steven Spielberg, 'we're going to need a bigger boat.'"
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:41pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:41pm
Ray Martin calls for a standing ovation
By Melissa Brown
Ray finishes his eulogy by recalling how Hinch went to jail for his convictions.
He says he always fought for battlers and underdogs.
Martin finishes by asking the congregation to stand in ovation, saying Hinch would have deserved it.
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:37pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:37pm
Martin says Hinch was the best tabloid reporter he ever met
By Melissa Brown
Martin briefly mentions some of the major historical events he and Hinch covered, including the end of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon and the moon landing.
He says Hinch was the best tabloid reporter he had ever met.
"He had a great nose for a story. He wrote quickly and he wrote colourfully and he wrote well."
He says they were good friends but Hinch remained a fierce competitor.
He recalls Hinch was at a bar when he heard from a reporter from another network a rumour that the world's most wanted man — the Great Train Robber, Ronnie Biggs — had been arrested in Brazil.
He says Hinch told the barman to tell the reporter that he'd just stepped out to collect something and would be back.
Martin says the reporter stayed there for the rest of the night waiting for Hinch to return but Hinch had gone to the airport, jumped on a flight and talked his way into the jail to interview Biggs, getting the exclusive.
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:28pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:28pm
Ray Martin remembers a brave and brash colleague and friend
By Melissa Brown
Veteran journalist Ray Martin worked as a foreign correspondent for the ABC in New York at the same time Hinch was there.
Martin says there was nothing subtle about Hinch or his "endless" opinions.
"He was born with a megaphone for a voice, his typewriter was just about as loud.
"He was brave and brash, with an ego that could light up a small city."
But he says Hinch was also very likeable.
Ray Martin (ABC News)He says Hinch wrote 15 books.
"Two of them were about Scrabble because he loved words. Six were about himself ... because he quite liked himself as well," he laughed.
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:27pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:27pm
Hinch's friend Rhonda Burchmore performs
By Kate Higgins
Earlier attendees enjoyed a musical performance of one of Hinch's favourite songs, You Are So Beautiful.
Now, one of his good friends Rhonda Burchmore is performing They Can't Take That Away From Me.
She playfully casts her eyes to Hinch's casket when she sings the words "they way you sing off key" — perhaps a nod to an earlier anecdote about the late broadcaster loving to sing, despite his lack of vocal ability.
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:22pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:22pm
Tardio says Hinch dominated the radio waves like no other
By Melissa Brown
Tardio says Hinch was the reason he got into radio.
He was working at Prahran Market in the 1980s and made sure he finished cleaning the floors in time to get into his car and listen to Hinch's show.
He says Hinch dominated the airwaves like no-one before and no-one since.
"He interviewed the famous, locked horns with the powerful, romanced the most beautiful women, wrote millions of words, became a radio star, a television star, took on big and sometimes unpopular causes, went to jail, was put under home detention, founded a political party, sat in the Australian senate, drank too much, was within weeks of death, got someone else's liver, got an extra 16 years of precious life. And had a bloody good time doing it all."
Tardio finishes off with another of Hinch's famous phrases: "thank your mother for the rabbits".
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:14pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:14pm
Tardio remembers Hinch baking for newsroom colleagues
By Melissa Brown
Tardio says Hinch was married four times, was sacked 16 times, got rich, went broke and got rich again.
He went to jail, had a liver transplant and entered politics "and did it all like it was the most normal thing in the world", Tardio added.
"I will remember his as the guy who baked muffins for the newsroom," he says.
"The look on his face as he proudly delivered to them I remember to this day. And they were sensational muffins."
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:13pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:13pm
Tardio remembers Hinch's famous interviews
By Melissa Brown
Tardio continues to list an array of world famous names that Hinch had had encounters with including interviews with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and golfer Arnold Palmer handing him a beer at a BBQ at Jack Nicklaus's house.
"He met Princess Diana when he was president of the Variety club. She told him she loved to watch tv shows like Dynasty and Dallas to see how the other half lived."
Hinch interviewed the Dalai Lama four times, Bob Hope, Sofia Loren, Walter Cronkite, John Wayne and Bette Midler.
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:08pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:08pm
Former 3AW newsreader remembers 'remarkable' stories
By Melissa Brown
One of the last interviews Hinch did was with 3AW presenter Tony Tardio on a podcast three months ago.
Tardio says Hinch appeared on 73 episodes of the podcast, and that they spoke about Hinch's life as a foreign correspondent for United Press International in Toronto and New York.
He says story after story revealed Hinch's "remarkable life", including attending Martin Luther King's funeral, walking out of the service walking behind Senator Robert F Kennedy and then, just later, standing 15 feet from him minutes before his assassination.
He says Hinch pretended to be a member of the choir to enter the church for Kennedy's funeral.
"There'll never be another like him", Tardio says.
Tony Tardio (ABC News)Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:05pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 1:05pm
Colleague remembers the 'privilege' of a 50-year friendship
By Kate Higgins
Hinch's longtime radio colleague Denis O'Kane, who goes "way back" with the late broadcaster, is the next speaker.
He starts by thanking Hinch's family and his longtime carer and PA Annette Philpott.
O'Kane then recalls Hinch's brief stint at Melbourne radio station 3XY in in the late 70s, which is where the pair first met.
O'Kane's euology is full of memorable anecdotes, including Hinch's one-line review for the movie Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton John: "I saw Xanadu last night, my recommendation: Xana-don't."
He says not long after, Hinch left 3XY — noting that it may have been the first radio station Hinch was fired from — moving to 3AW, where many Melbourne listeners will remember him.
"Derryn Hinch was a delight," O'Kane says.
"Goodbye my friend, 50 years knowing you has been a privilege.
"I never thought someone like you would come into my life ... thank you.
"Rest in peace. Without you, life will not be the same."
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:51pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:51pm
Nikki Nicholls performs You Are So Beautiful
By Kate Higgins
After Dermot O'Brien departs, the attendees listen to a performance of You Are So Beautiful by singer Nikki Nicholls.
After she finishes her "magnificent" rendition, Darren James explains that this was a song Hinch loved and "unfortunately for a lot of us, used to try and sing at the drop of a hat".
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:51pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:51pm
O'Brien describes Hinch as a warrior
By Melissa Brown
O'Brien has described Hinch as a shameless optimist and a stirrer.
He says says if Hinch could speak now he would say "wow, what a ride".
Hinch's friend and former producer Dermot O'Brien (ABC News)"He hated child sex offenders, he hated the organisations that shielded them and moved them around to hide them.
"He did not trust politicians despite eventually becoming one.
"He hated bullies and quite frankly the list goes on."
He says the last few years have not been kind to Hinch health-wise.
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:43pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:43pm
Colleague and friend Dermot O'Brien speaks
By Melissa Brown
Dermot O'Brien worked with Hinch on his television current affairs show for six years, and remained a friend.
He says he can see many former producers, sub-editors and chiefs-of-staff at the service today.
"Every single one of them here would have stories - good, bad, funny, controversial," he says.
He recalls a "blistering" argument between Hinch and another producer in fine dining Melbourne restaurant Flower Drum.
O'Brien says he was called into the manager's officer the next day and found Christopher Skase sitting behind the desk.
"His last words to me where 'your job is to make yourself Derryn Hinch's best friend'.
"Well, Christopher, 38 years later, as his best friend, colleague and partner in crime, not to mention critic, mission accomplished."
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:36pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:36pm
A moving tribute to a 'pesky little brother'
By Kate Higgins
The next speaker is Australian announcer Craig Willis, who reads a letter from Hinch's brother Des.
Willis says he was asked by Des to read his tribute, which he promises to do verbatim, to his "beloved brother and best mate".
The first part of the tribute is a story about Des' "pesky little brother".
Des says that as kids, he and his brother Derryn shared a bedroom, with a line drawn down the middle.
He's remembered that Derryn's side of the room was a "chaotic jumble" of toys, books and "whatever else was his current obsession".
One of Derryn's greatest possessions was a crystal radio, and the other was a kaleidoscope.
Des now asks all in attendance to think of "at least one special memory you will keep of my brother".
"It could be something he said, something he did, something he wrote.
"It could be a book, an interview or a recipe.
"If we could all gather those memories together they would fill that bedroom from our youth.
"You could look at them through a kaleidoscope, and with each twist of the tube, you as the observer would see the colourful, constantly changing multifaceted mosaic that was his life."
Willis thanks Des for his beautiful words, then finishes his time on state saying: "You did good my friend, rest well."
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:32pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:32pm
Hinch never shied away from a fight, MP says
By Melissa Brown
Danny Person recalls how Hinch used his position to give a voice to the voiceless.
Hinch would always stand up for what he thought was right, no matter what, Pearson says.
He says he never shied away from a fight, and that his determination to stand up for others took him to the senate.
Pearson says that there, Hinch advocaced for and achieved "real change" for the victims and survivors of abuse.
"He proved once again, a single voice can make a difference."
Danny Pearson finishes by thanking Hinch's family for sharing him with us.
"The headlines may fade but his legacy will not," Pearson says.
"We will remember his causes and his courage and the lesson to never stop trying.
"His signagure sign off was 'that's life'. His will be remembered."
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:29pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:29pm
Hinch made us appreciate the world around us, state MP says
By Melissa Brown
State MP Danny Pearson is representing the premier Jacinta Allan at the service.
He expresses his condolences to Hinch's partner Lynda Stoner and Hinch's family.
He describes listening to Hinch on radio station 3aw as a daily ritual.
"For many in the community, he turned the switch on — he made us think about things we hadn't thought about.
"He made sure that we had a deeper appreciation for the world around us."
Pearson says Hinch's legacy across the airwaves earnt him an induction into the Australian Commercial Radio Hall of Fame.
"He also left his mark on television, hosting multiple current affairs programs and becoming one of the countries most recognisable figures and voices."
Key Event
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:22pm
Mon 20 Jul 2026 at 12:22pm
Hinch's goddaughter performs Advance Australia Fair
By Melissa Brown
Darren James returns to welcome Hinch's goddaughter to the stage.
Ellie O'Connell is performning the national anthem.
James says Hinch would be very proud.
Ellie O'Connell (ABC News)
