Cannane's first radio job was answering the phones during
ABC Local Radio's
Nightlife program, hosted by
Tony Delroy. the harassment of the parents of a deceased child by the anti-vaccination lobby and the failure of the
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to protect consumers from dodgy products. He temporarily presented breakfast on
ABC Radio National while the regular presenter pursued other projects. Cannane was the founding presenter of Triple J's current affairs program,
Hack, beginning in 2004. In 2005, Cannane was accused of
antisemitism by Liberal Party senator
Santo Santoro who alleged at a senate committee hearing that Cannane had made reference to "those awful jews" in a November 2004
Hack interview about
Mordechai Vanunu. However, Santoro later apologised and said that he had been misinformed after a review of the transcript confirmed Cannane had put no such questions forward. at the National Drug and Alcohol Awards and visited the US as the Australian representative on the US Department of State's Edward R Murrow program for journalists. In 2008, Cannane presented
The Hack Half Hour on
ABC2. In 2009, he fronted the ABC1 documentary series
Whatever! The Science of Teenagers and published a book,
First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards That Made Them. In July 2010, Cannane was appointed presenter of ABC News 24's
The Drum, a panel discussion program providing news and analysis on issues of the day. Also in July 2010, Cannane broke the story of harassment of the parents of a child who died of whooping cough by the anti-vaccination lobby, the
Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) on Lateline. His story was the first to expose the lobby group as callous and cruel, with revelations that their President Meryl Dorey, had sought to access medical records of the child as evidence she had died from a pertussis infection. The story also described a complaint about the AVN which was under investigation by the
NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), alleging the group disseminated misleading and dangerous health information regarding vaccination. The complaint was eventually upheld, resulting in revocation of the group's charity licence and the issuing of a public warning by the HCCC. Both these actions were overturned following a successful Supreme Court challenge by the AVN in 2011. Cannane has continued to follow the AVN, most recently on
The Drum, discussing the appearance of Dorey at the
Woodford Folk Festival. In November 2010 he was recognised for "...his honest and diligent approach to journalism and the pursuit of truth in all of its aspects and wherever it may lead" at the Australian Skeptics National Convention where he was also a speaker. He has worked as a reporter and fill in presenter on ABC1's late night news and current affairs program,
Lateline, presenter of
The Drum on
ABC News 24 and has appeared on
Ten's The 7pm Project. From April 2016 until July 2018, Cannane was ABC's Europe Correspondent, based in London before joining the ABC's Investigations Unit as a reporter.
Defamation case In September 2016, Cannane published
Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia, which prompted a defamation suit to be brought against Cannane and
HarperCollins by doctors John Gill and John Herron who were involved in the
Australian Chelmsford deep sleep scandal. In his book, Cannane referenced the
Chelmsford Royal Commission which exposed practices which took place at the Chelmsford Private Hospital. After an eight-week trial which was held entirely on
Microsoft Teams due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the lawsuit was dismissed in late 2020 with Justice
Jayne Jagot ruling in favour of Cannane and HarperCollins with Gill and Herron ordered to pay costs. According to Jagot, as a medical practitioner Herron "had no residual reputation to be protected" while she said Gill was "held in very low estimation by the relevant sector" prior to the release of Cannane's book. Additionally Gill and Herron's appeal also relied upon the idea that Cannane and HarperCollins should not have been granted qualified privilege as a defence against defamation. In 2022, the Federal Court heard the appeal and unanimously agreed that, contrary to Justice Jagot's original findings, Cannane's defence of qualified privilege was not justified and therefore would not be available to him and HarperCollins as a defence against defamation. All three judges took issue with the fact that the expert witnesses who authored the reports used in the Royal Commission and then later in Cannane's defamation trial were not available for
cross examination. Additionally the expert witness who authored the reports did not state with clarity or even at all, the facts and assumptions on which their decisions were based. Furthermore, they failed to elaborate upon the process of reasoning they used when writing said reports. ==References==