THE TRUTH IS SLEEPING

I really didn’t want to go down this track. I thought I’d let sleeping dogs lie. But the dogs are barking and the truth is sleeping.

It is about CPEC – the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre – and a concerted campaign to smear and discredit me. First in yesterday’s Herald Sun and then a hatchet job on Today Tonight last night.

Leading the campaign, for whatever reason, for whatever hidden agenda, is the boss of CPEC and onetime friend Garry Prigg.

He has claimed that all I really raised for CPEC was $5000. Which is a hurtful lie. And I have written proof.

Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt (who is no friend of mine and has savaged me on radio and in print in the past) went to the CPEC website and quotes it as saying that four years ago CPEC was strapped for operating cash and was dying.

“Derryn then went on radio to raise $90,000. He was directly responsible for saving the CPEC services."

The website also says: “Derryn has visited the Centre to meet with the parents and staff. He also attends the CPEC annual dinner auction with a supportive group of friends. He meets on a regular basis with CPEC associates to be kept up to date on our progress”.

But there is more. Last month Prigg e-mailed my radio producers to confirm an interview with Jacinta Allen, the Minister for Education after she announced a $300,00 grant towards the building of CPEC’s new education centre. That, added to the half a million dollars I had helped Prigg and CPEC raise meant building work on the centre could start. And, excitingly, it has.

In that e-mail Prigg said – and I quote him verbatim – “With the $300,000 grant from Minister Allen, and the $500,000 that Derryn and I have promoted and raised since July 2004, CPEC will have a purpose designed education building that has no debt!!!

Cheers,

Garry Prigg

And that doesn’t mention all my campaigning on 3AK and then 3AW which saw all the air-conditioning for the kids being donated. Plus the landscaping for free. Plus discounted building materials.

And in this character assassination campaign Prigg and the Herald Sun and Today Tonight conveniently ignored the $16,000 I won for them as my chosen charity on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I even donated my appearance fee.

Plus the thousands of dollars raised as my chosen charity on Dancing With the Stars. And I changed my will so that book royalties will go to CPEC when I die.

Three things I will cherish out of all this.

1:The centre will be built. The kids will benefit.

2: I received a letter yesterday from a family with a child who attends CPEC.

It said in part: “We cannot begin to tell you how hurt, deflated and angry we feel about the decision by the CPEC committee and Garry Prigg to sever all ties with you. We would like to firstly acknowledge your great efforts, your passion and display of humanity towards our children”.

3: And then there is the plaque on my office wall, presented to me at a CPEC function. The inscription was written by Garry Prigg.

It says: “This is to forever recognize the remarkable personal and public support so generously given by Derryn to our children, families, staff and volunteers at the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre. Without Derryn’s energy and commitment to the Centre’s survival and growth since June 2001, current and future children with cerebral palsy would have lost a significant opportunity to live an exciting life full of hope, unlimited potential and inspiring achievement. With Derryn ‘That’s Life’.

Mr. Prigg, Herald Sun, Today Tonight, I rest my case.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005