A former A Current Affair reporter who was famously among the first to lid on the ‘despicable blokey culture’ within the commercial TV world has died following a near two-year battle against an aggressive brain tumour.

Jane Hansen – a pioneering female television journalist and war correspondent who reported from some of the most dangerous places on the planet – passed away on the Gold Coast about 11.400pm on Tuesday surrounded by loved ones.

Despite fighting an aggressive 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. 

The statement said: ‘To all that knew and loved my sister. Jane passed away peacefully at approximately 11.40pm 6 August. 

‘Jane put up an amazing fight right till the end and never once complained, and never lost her sense of humour this whole time.’

The family thanked loved ones for their ‘extraordinary level of support, love and compassion’ over the course of her 18 month cancer battle.

Hansen wrote the 2008 fictionalised book ‘Boned’ with fellow reporter Fiona McKenzie. 

The book was, in the seasoned journalist’s own words, an account of the ‘despicable’ behaviour of men who ran commercial television. 

The title of the book was a reference to the Today show host Jessica Rowe’s infamous sacking by Channel Nine – with a senior producer at the network once alleging that Eddie McGuire used that colloquialism to describe her axing. 

The protagonist of the novel faced the same real-world challenges of institutional sexism experienced by women in the Australian TV world – including by Hansen. 

‘We felt that someone needed to take a stand,’ Hansen wrote in a confessional 2017 piece where she admitted being the co-author of the book. 

‘I found defending my position as a seasoned journalist in commercial television exhausting and depressing. We’d … been beaten down the boys’ club. We’d been bullied. But we were never victims.’ 

Hansen’s most recent role was a journalist with News Corp’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper. She wrote extensively about the anti-vaccination and anti-fluoride movements in New South Wales. 

She was a lead reporter on the media giant’s No Jab, No Play/Pay campaigns, which withheld welfare payments from parents who did not fully immunise their children and disallowed them from childcare centres and preschools. 

More to follow