Melbourne media figure Derryn Hinch has penned an insult-filled final send-off to his old Sydney rival John Laws in the wake of the radio king’s death.

Since Laws died aged 90 almost two weeks ago many of his former Sydney colleagues and competitors have lionised the man with the ‘golden tonsils’ for his 71-year career.

Ray Hadley called Laws a ‘radio icon’, Kyle Sandilands reckoned he felt ‘like I’ve lost a grandfather’ and Ben Fordham said ‘radio has lost its king’.

Alan Jones hailed the Laws morning program as ‘compulsive listening’ and joined his fellow Australians in offering thanks ‘for the pleasure and enjoyment given to millions’.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and his predecessors Paul Keating and John Howard all offered glowing tributes to Laws, and on Wednesday he was farewelled with a state funeral.

But Hinch, who hosted radio shows on Melbourne stations 3XY, 3AW and 3AK, as well hosting national television programs, made it clear he was never a fan.

‘Radio legend John Laws, who died this week, and I were not friends,’ the 81-year-old wrote online. ‘Far from it.’

Hinch then raised the Australian Broadcasting Authority’s 1999 inquiry which revealed Laws and Jones had received undeclared payments from major corporations for favourable commentary.

Melbourne media figure Derryn Hinch has penned an insult-filled final send-off to his old Sydney rival John Laws (above) in the wake of the radio king’s death

‘Radio legend John Laws, who died this week, and I were not friends,’ 81-year-old Hinch (above) wrote on Facebook. ‘Far from it’

‘During the “cash for comment” scandal I said Laws and Alan Jones should be banned for ten years for damage to the industry,’ Hinch said.

Laws had denied any wrongdoing, always pitching himself as a salesman and entertainer, rather than a journalist.

He endorsed products including Valvoline motor oil and Mortein fly spray, while Hinch was originally a newspaperman who had had edited The Sun in Sydney in the mid 1970s.

Hinch said his relationship with Laws ‘was not helped’ when as The Sun’s editor he put the headline ‘The Pockmarked Prince of Pain’ on a column written by Mike Gibson.

‘I also said once that I wished he would turn his Mortein can around and spray it in the other direction,’ he said.

Hinch acknowledged Laws as a ‘radio legend’ who ‘owned Sydney’.

‘He tried to crack Melbourne several times but never made it,’ he said. ‘A bit like Kyle Sandilands years later.

‘I once asked the boss of 2UE what was Laws’ success secret. He crudely replied: “Because women think his voice sounds like he has a big c***”.’

Laws with his wife Caroline in 2005. He called her ‘the Princess’

‘During the “cash for comment” scandal I said Laws and Alan Jones should be banned for ten years for damage to the industry,’ Hinch said. Laws (right) and Jones are pictured

Hinch also raised his most notorious encounter with Laws, which occurred three days after the Sydney broadcaster’s December 2007 retirement from 2UE.

Laws had been hosting a lunch for his longtime personal assistant Jodee Borgo and 2UE staff at Otto, his favourite harbourside restaurant on Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf.

Hinch and legendary radio presenter Bob Rogers – then at 2CH – were dining nearby at Salon Blanc.

‘With a couple of drinks under his belt he swaggered up and publicly insulted us,’ Hinch said of Laws. ‘He loudly called us both despicable c***s.’

Hinch had publicly revealed nine months earlier he was suffering advanced cirrhosis of the liver caused by chronic alcohol abuse.

‘Laws described me as a “failed alcoholic”,’ Hinch remembered. ‘I said that would make him a successful one.’

‘He bragged to guests back at lunch that he swung a punch at me but that did not happen.’

Laws, whose love of Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey was well-known, had a different version of events.

Hinch, who has recently been in hospital after a series of health setbacks (above), recalled the last time he saw Laws they shook hands

‘I said, “Derryn, there’s something you should know about yourself and then I said what I said, which shouldn’t be repeated,’ Laws told the Daily Telegraph.

‘It was a very quick exchange. I told him he looked like an armpit transplant… but the unbelievable thing is that after I insulted him, he just sat there.’

Laws said Hinch had been making nasty comments about him for years but that Rogers was a ‘decent old bloke’. Rogers, then 81, said it was the most enjoyable lunch he’d had in years.

‘I thought for a second he was going to hit Hinch,’ Rogers said. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was wonderful. At this stage in my life I thought it was wonderful to have such enjoyment.’

Hinch, who served three years in the federal senate as leader of his own party and has recently been in hospital after a series of health setbacks, recalled the last time he saw Laws.

‘Ironically, I was in a Sydney restaurant last Christmas and bumped into Laws who was sitting in a wheelchair with a minder,’ he said.

‘I’m not sure he recognised me but, in the Xmas spirit, we shook hands. First time ever.’