Victorian Senator Derryn Hinch on politics, Hanson, deportations and manners

He thinks our politics are tame, he agrees with Peter Dutton's deportation policies and he certainly isn't in New Zealand to learn any manners, as Pauline Hanson suggested, but New Zealand journalist-turned-Australian Senator Derryn Hinch is proud to have spent time in prison.

Hinch, who was born in New Plymouth and cut his teeth at the local paper, has been visiting New Zealand this week as part of a delegation of the Australian Senate Community Affairs Legislation and References Committee looking at our aged-care provisions.

The man known across the Ditch as the Human Headline had time for a quick interview with the Herald in between appointments, and gave his thoughts on a range of topics.

Hinch said it was "weird" to be back in New Zealand.

"To have left here all those years ago and come back as an Australian senator to where you were born, it's a weird feeling, but it's fantastic."

He and his colleagues are being hosted by Parliament's Speaker Trevor Mallard, and yesterday sat in on question time.

His verdict: "Your question time is far more genteel than ours."

"Although yesterday I saw Winston Peters being a little bit rambunctious, as Winston tends to be, and a bit showy. But I like the way the quickfire number of your supplementary questions are coming at you, it's very good.

"I'm starting to understand your situation with the MMP. We've got a big fight in Australia at the moment how the Liberal Party has very few women. I can understand a bit more why you've got it because you bring in more diversity. I still can't get my head around the fact your Deputy Prime Minister loses the election and still gets in."

Hinch was elected to the Senate in 2016 as a Victorian Senator and leader of the Derryn Hinch's Justice Party on a primary policy of better support for victims and their families.

He says he's very proud of the fact he has spent time in prison and on home detention for breaching court orders and publicly naming sex offenders.

"I have a criminal record. I have convictions as a journalist for contempt of court and breaching suppression orders, of which I am very proud."

It has created issues in his role as a politician, however.

"After this delegation we're supposed to be going to Canada, to Ottawa. I've been refused a visa because of my criminal past. I'm a senator, I have an official passport, but I'm being checked out for my convictions."

Hinch has been an Australian citizen since 1980, which is lucky because under the policies of the Liberal Government and Home affairs Minister Peter Dutton, he could have been deported.

He backs the crackdown which has seen more than 1000 New Zealanders deported from Australia in the last two years.

"I agree with [Dutton]. If you are not a citizen of a country and you are a resident of the country and you break the law … you should be deported."

"If they've never been naturalised or not a citizen you give them the flick, that's the law of the land."

Hinch isn't going anywhere, as One Nation leader Pauline Hanson recently told him to.

"Go pack your bags and get on your next plane out of the country, that's where you belong … go back to New Zealand and pick up your manners," Hanson told him during a fiery exchange on Australian TV recently.

The pair butted heads over when Hinch asked what she had achieved.

He said he wasn't in New Zealand to "pick up his manners".

"No, I won't change.

"It's very funny, that's what bigots and racists always say; 'go back to where you come from'. That was the hidden message there, it wasn't 'go back and learn some manners'.

"In general, she's not my cup of tea."

His final words - as a former contestant on Dancing with the Stars in Australia, much like New Zealand's Act leader David Seymour, Hinch says "don't do it".

"Just remember YouTube, it doesn't go away."