Duncan Storrar has been labelled a national hero after his question to the panel on Q&A this week, but it turns out this Aussie battler has quite the chequered past. 

Mr Storrar’s said on air he was so poor that he could not afford to take his children to the cinema, or afford a toaster.

But Program Producer Michael Hilder told Neil Mitchell that Storrar’s criminal record dates back to the early nineties.

The twenty-page wrap sheet says he has been in prison three times (once for threatening to kill) and breached an intervention order multiple times.

He has also used illicit substances in the past and there are suggestions that he named one of his children after a particular drug.

A Go-Fund-Me account has been set up to help him, which has so far generated $60,000. But Mr Storrar has not accepted the financial help and asked that it be donated to a cancer charity instead.

Watch Duncan’s appearance on the ABC below, or scroll down to hear Michael Hilder’s report.

Click PLAY to hear Duncan’s question on Q&A this week 

Program producer Michael Hilder sheds some light on Duncan