By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
IN HIS bid for election to the Senate ‘The Human Headline’ gets, “You’re a ledge Dezza” shouted his way through shopping centres as he travels Victoria.
Stopping through the outer south-east last week, Derryn Hinch visited Pakenham, Tooradin and Cranbourne spruiking his reforms for justice via his Justice Party.
The former 3AW broadcaster had Cranbourne Park shoppers star-struck on Friday 3 June.
Philip Wiseman detoured Derryn’s way and told him “If you did what you said you were going to do last year and start that party, you’d have my vote.”
“We need someone to keep the bastards honest again,” Philip said.
Derryn responded: “Well that’s exactly what I’ve done … I’m combining both Gough Whitlam’s motto and Don Chipp’s, it’s time to keep the bastards honest.”
Shaping his campaign around his long-term stand for tougher court sentencing and a public register of convicted sex offenders, Derryn’s Justice Party goes by the motto ‘It’s just common sense’.
Common sense he says that needs to be concentrated on reforms to bail and parole, animal rights, voluntary euthanasia and domestic violence reform.
When asked about his thoughts on Melbourne’s youth crime surge, just a day after 12 cars were vandalised in Casey – some carved with ‘Apex’ on the bonnet – Derryn said: “If you commit an adult crime you should be treated in an adult way.”
“Bail restrictions aren’t strong enough; the leniency on the Apex gang members is just a sick joke,” he said.
“We all saw what happened at Moomba, they should not be given bail as easily. And a classic case is the monkey bike death – that kid has been given so many chances, why?”
Last year’s crime statistics revealed offenders aged 10 to 14 committed more than double the number of burglaries and break-ins, compared to 2014 in the City of Casey.
Derryn puts it down to school truancy.
“They aren’t going to school – if they were going to school they wouldn’t have time to be doing all this,” he said.
“Also when they see the older gang members being treated with kid gloves they think ‘oh well, it’s not that bad’.”
This year alone Star News has reported on three sickening acts of animal cruelty to two kangaroos and an embryo joey which was decapitated, a cat which was dipped in engine oil and several dogs.
It’s a concern the Justice Party wants to see taken seriously by government.
“Can you remember a time when anybody ever got jailed for animal cruelty?” Derryn said.
The RSPCA to a large degree are doing their job but it falls down along the way and I can’t recall when anybody got jailed for animal cruelty.
“The sad thing is too many judges and magistrates are too scared to set a precedent for fear their sentences will get over turned.
“I was the first MC for the first Oscars Law rally – we’d get on the parliament steps and the Opposition spokesperson would be there getting behind you and when they got into government the other Opposition leader would come and support the next rally.
“It’s a cycle and it’s bullshit.
“I’m not some vigilante that gets up and says lock ‘em all up, fine ‘em all, but penalties have to be tougher because it has to be a deterrent as well. I would like to see people jailed for animal cruelty when necessary,” Derryn said.
While the City of Casey has the highest number of police reports of family violence in the state and as intervention order breaches continue to climb, Derryn put it back on the courts.
“When a man breaks his wife’s jaw that should be treated no differently to when a man king-hits a stranger – but that’s not the case right now, a wedding ring is called a mitigating circumstance and that’s just bullshit.
“That’s the sort of thing that has to change and it’s the same thing with child pornography,” he said.
“It always ties back to the fact too many judges and magistrates are thinking too much about the rehabilitation and the effect on the criminal than on the victim.”
Derryn will continue his trip around Australia up until the 2 July election – having already travelled more than 7000 kilometres in his campaign bus.
