Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a personal explanation as I claim to have been misrepresented by Senator Burston.

Leave granted.

Yesterday, Senator Burston blocked leave for an amendment to my motion for a joint committee to oversee the national Redress Scheme. He also dissented when I then sought leave to move the original motion. The One Nation senator has since defamed me by telling other senators in this chamber that he dissented because 'the only reason Senator Hinch is insisting on sharing the planned committee is because it comes with a $21,000 allowance, and that's greedy'. I want to put on record that I was totally unaware that there was any cash emolument with that position, and if there is I will donate it to the Wintringham project for homeless people over 50 in Melbourne, because all I want to do is establish a watchdog committee so that child victims of institutionalised abuse get the proper redress that has been, for so long, so cruelly and so shamefully overdue.