Despite battling mobility issues and narrowly avoiding having a leg amputated last year, Human Headline Derryn Hinch is still a voice in the political fray.The outspoken former senator and media firebrand has thrown his support behind his former Justice Party protégé, Stuart Grimley, who is aiming to run for his own organisation – the Frontline Workers Party – at November’s state election.“I have endorsed him personally because I think he is a very worthwhile candidate, but I can’t endorse his party because I founded my own,” Hinch told CBD.Derryn Hinch with former Hinch Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley who is now heading his own party, the Frontline Workers Party.Facebook/Derryn Hinch“I believe in what he stands for and I hope he gets elected. He is a very decent man and he cares about people. I am supporting him, but I have not become a member of his party.”While Hinch, 82, still keeps a close eye on political battlegrounds, his biggest fight recently has been with his health.After suffering deep cuts to both his lower legs in a fall at his Melbourne apartment in September, Hinch has been to hell and back trying to get the wounds to heal.Over the past six months he has fought serious infection, been hospitalised several times, taken a number of nasty tumbles and has come to terms with his declining mobility.Hinch, pictured in February 2024, is battling medical issues related to his legs. Justin McManusIn October, he suffered a heavy fall and spent 12 hours lying on his lounge room floor with two broken ribs and agonising infected legs until he was able to call an ambulance. It was during this time that doctors told him amputation of one of his legs was a very real possibility.“I said, ‘That’s life’,” Hinch told CBD with his usual pluck.“I accepted that might have to happen, but luckily it hasn’t and I have both my legs still, and I have Johnnie Walker (the name he gives his walking aid) helping me to get around. I’m doing between 6000 and 7000 steps a week now.”Hinch will soon undergo surgery, which he hopes will finally lead to his legs healing.“I have home nurses coming three times a week and regular doctor’s appointments,” he said.“The good news is even though my legs have been buggered for months now the doctors have said there will be an operation on my right leg next month to try and improve the circulation.”Back to Grimley, the police officer and Hinch’s Justice Party MP between 2018 and 2022, who last week reached 500 members for his party, the number required by the Victorian Electoral Commission for registration of a political party. He is now going through the VEC’s next compliance stage.Liberals’ social media pothole stunt hits a rough patch A pothole palaver has erupted after a social media stunt showing Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and Liberal candidate for Nepean, Anthony Marsh, doing rogue road repairs has led to the Department of Transport and Planning investigating their activities.Wilson has had a good run with her social media of late, gaining traction, scoring clicks, adding new followers and getting plenty of attention with snappy videos sticking the boot into the government over the Commonwealth Games debacle and overgrown nature strips.Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and Nepean candidate Anthony Marsh fill a pothole in Dromana, in an Instagram reel posted to Wilson’s social media on March 8.Instagram/@jesswilsonmpBut the pothole pit crew stunt might have been too clever for its own good.Marsh, who has taken leave as Mayor of the Mornington Peninsula Shire while contesting the Nepean byelection, joined Wilson in the March 8 Instagram reel calling out Labor on the shoddy state of roads on the peninsula.They were shown in high-vis filing in potholes in Dromana like a pair of moonlighting political Bob The Builders.Remember cartoon Bob and his catchphrase “Can we fix it?” and his team’s response, “Yes, we can”?That video, which remains on Wilson’s social media platform, might need a bit of fixing of its own seeing as it is now, as revealed by the ABC on Sunday, the subject of a review by the department with the roadworks allegedly undertaken without appropriate permits.The pothole issue was also addressed by Mornington Peninsula Shire chief executive Mark Stoermer at the council’s March meeting where he urged people not to take road repairs into their own hands.“Council does not support members of the public undertaking repair works on live public roads,” Stoermer said at the meeting.“I am going to stress that that is a very dangerous thing to do.”Marsh and Wilson with a bag of bitumen ready to fix a pothole.Instagram/@jesswilsonmpA spokesperson for Wilson told CBD the government should fix the roads rather than fixate on Wilson.“If Jacinta Allan and her Labor dirt unit spent as much time filling potholes as she did attacking Jess Wilson, Victorians wouldn’t be faced with spending hundreds of dollars on busted tyres due to the condition of our roads,” the spokesperson said.Meanwhile, a Department of Transport and Planning spokesperson said: “Any works undertaken on our roads and road sides need to be done safely.”Early voting for the seat of Nepean, which became vacant after former deputy Liberal leader Sam Groth quit politics in February, opens on Wednesday.Catalano parts ways with his crisis publicistAntony Catalano, the erstwhile Domain chief executive turned regional media entrepreneur, was for years known among journalists for his willingness to pick up the phone.But that changed last month when, after he was charged with allegedly assaulting his wife, Catalano was uncharacteristically unavailable to comment. The always-reachable Catalano had instead brought in the Melbourne crisis publicist, Lahra Carey, to take calls from journalists.Antony Catalano has parted ways with his crisis publicist. Jason SouthThe arrangement, however, was not to last. Now it would appear that Catalano has nobody in his corner to pick up his calls, after he and Carey parted ways late last month. Catalano didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.Carey, who had also been taking calls from media for Catalano’s wife, Stefanie, has told journalists that she is no longer engaged by anybody in the family, and that since Catalano stepped back from his various executive roles, her counsel was no longer required. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.