Ray Martin has paid a powerful tribute to Jane Hansen, a former A Current Affair reporter who was one of the first to expose the “despicable male culture” in the world of commercial television.
Hansen, in his 50s, died on Tuesday night after a nearly two-year battle with an aggressive brain tumour. Television icon Martin told the Daily Mail Australia he was “shocked and saddened” by his passing.
The pair worked together in the Nine Network mainstay’s heyday.
“Jane Hansen gave journalism a good name,” he said. “She was formidable, energetic and ethical.”
‘She fought tirelessly for the disadvantaged and underprivileged, especially women and Aboriginal Australians.
“Jane was smart, funny and a reliable friend. We will miss her pursuit of excellence, while trying to keep those bastards honest.”
Hansen, a pioneering television journalist and war correspondent who reported from some of the most dangerous places on the planet, died on the Gold Coast at around 11.40pm last night, surrounded by her loved ones.
Despite battling an aggressive type of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, Hansen’s family said she never lost her revered tenacity and determination to see the good in the worst of situations.
“To all who knew and loved my sister: Jane passed away peacefully at approximately 11:40 p.m. on August 6th,” the statement read.
Pioneering television reporter, newspaper journalist and globe-trotting war correspondent Jane Hansen is pictured above during her heyday in commercial television.
Along with fellow journalist Fiona McKenzie, Hansen was the author of ‘Boned’. Although officially a work of fiction, industry insiders were well aware that many of the incidents detailed in the novel were very real.
“Jane put up an incredible fight to the very end and never complained, and never lost her sense of humor throughout all this time.”
The family thanked her loved ones for their “extraordinary level of support, love and compassion” throughout her 18-month battle with cancer.
In 2008, Hansen published the book no spikes with fellow journalist Fiona McKenzie. Although officially a work of fiction, industry insiders were well aware that many of the incidents depicted in the novel were very real.
The book’s title was a reference to Channel Nine’s infamous sacking of Today show host Jessica Rowe. A senior producer at the network claimed in an affidavit that Eddie McGuire had used the colloquialism to describe her dismissal.
The soap’s protagonist faced the same real-life challenges of institutional sexism that women in Australian television, including Hansen, experienced.
“We felt that someone needed to take a stand,” Hansen wrote in a 2017 confessional piece in which she admitted to being one of the book’s anonymous authors, nearly a decade after it went to press.
“I found it exhausting and depressing to defend my position as a seasoned journalist in commercial television. We had been beaten into the boys’ club. We had been bullied. But we were never victims.”
She said her years as a globe-trotting war correspondent did not prepare her for the fierce battle for equality she faced within the male-dominated Nine Network.
“I slept on the floor, on the bombed-out ‘sniper side’ of the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, in the middle of the Bosnian war, and bribed murderous Iraqi officials to extend my visa in Baghdad,” he recalled.
“I’ve stared down a Taliban mullah in an interview and forced him to storm off. I’ve had a human trafficker threaten to kill me under a hotel room in Jakarta and I’ve slept with an iron in my bed to protect myself after thwarting a coup leader in Fiji.”
‘But by the time we wrote Boned, we’d both quit our jobs. We had small babies and were working freelance. Plus, we’d been getting beat up by the boys’ club.
‘The bad behavior we knew so well also seemed to have reached an all-time high: women were being fired on maternity leave, deans were being slandered for being difficult, and Jessica Rowe was sleeping with them.
We hoped this would challenge the serious cultural problem that still exists today.
Hansen, above, during a mission arranging for his visa extension during a trip to Iraq
‘At the foundation of this culture is a hideous sense of entitlement. Like kids in a candy store, it is an industry in which powerful men control the hopes and dreams of so many vulnerable, beautiful, educated and talented young women.
‘Any woman knew that a trip to HR was a back-and-forth journey with a trail of insults. We even heard the same words coming out of Don Burke’s mouth this week: emotionally fragile, disgruntled, witch hunt. He played the victim.
Hansen was over 50 years old.
‘In 2008, we decided to remain anonymous for the same reason. We knew that if our identity was revealed, we would be lined up and shot with the same old artillery used against any woman who dared to speak out: scorned, incapable, talentless fool, difficult bitch, imbecile, etc.
‘Even though there are many papers that suggest otherwise, we also felt that we might not work again if we confessed.
“We’re sad that Boned didn’t change the world back then. It was a long shot. But the rest of the world eventually caught up and now we can proudly say that we did our part.”
Hansen’s most recent position was as a journalist at News Corp’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, where he wrote extensively about the anti-vaccination and anti-fluoride movements in New South Wales.
She was very proud of her pro-vaccination campaigns, which resulted in welfare payments being denied to parents who did not fully immunize their children. Anti-vaxxer parents were also banned from daycare and preschools.
Hansen presented what would be his last report in February.
