Victoria’s new police chief faced a grilling on his first day – from the recruits

Victoria’s new chief police commissioner was just 17 when he donned his first uniform, and he still looked like he was in high school, he told a hall of recruits in Melbourne’s south-east on Friday.

That proved a problem at first for “conjuring authority on the streets” of New Zealand, but he would serve for more than 40 years, including eventually as the country’s police commissioner.

New chief commissioner Mike Bush addresses recruits at the Police Academy in Glen Waverley on Friday.Credit: Eddie Jim

On Friday, Mike Bush donned a new uniform as head of Victoria Police – drawn out of retirement and across the ditch by the Allan government to lead a force in turmoil after the departure of two chief commissioners and a deputy during a crime crisis.

While an eager press pack waited outside for Bush and Premier Jacinta Allan on his first day, the prickliest questions came from the police recruits. One asked whether police would receive upgraded technology. “Heck yes!” was the answer.

Another young detective asked the question on most journalists’ minds: how to juggle the pressures of “what the government wants with what the boots-on-the-ground need”?

That answer was handled with more diplomatic flair – a glimpse of the man who has led multiple government agencies through crises, from the Christchurch terror attack to the Boxing Day tsunami, not to mention helming New Zealand’s much-lauded COVID pandemic response.

Bush with Premier Jacinta Allan and Police Minister Anthony Carbines after his swearing-in on Friday.Credit: Eddie Jim

Bush, already running late to visit two police stations, vowed to keep his ear close to the ground to hear what police need even as he remains close to the ear of government. That also meant asking hard questions of politicians, he added.

There will likely be plenty. Appointed by a government desperate for a win on law and order in the lead-up to next year’s state election, Bush faces soaring crime rates, escalating youth gang violence and a tobacco war on the streets of Melbourne, along with recruitment problems, budgetary constraints and a slump in morale within the force itself.

“There’s too much crime,” Bush said. “Too much youth crime.” Organised crime was a key driver of harm, he said. “We’ve got to find a way to work with others to get ahead of it. We should not tolerate [it].”

One priority for Bush is now busting the money laundering that feeds major syndicates. “Those who do this can’t survive if you deprive them of two things: their liberty and their assets,” he said. But you’ve got to take away both simultaneously, he added, or they keep their power.

Another priority? To improve public trust in police. Bush has already vowed to put more officers in the community, but he has also arrived on the heels of a storm in Victoria Police’s upper echelons.

In February, his predecessor Shane Patton was axed by the government after a bruising vote of no confidence by police union members. Soon after, deputy commissioner Neil Paterson was told his own contract would not be renewed, and later Patton’s interim replacement Rick Nugent, considered a frontrunner for the role permanently after a career leading emergency services, bowed out of the race.

“I’ve known Shane for a long time,” said Bush on Friday of Patton. “And we did catch up recently. I respect him. We have different ways of policing, but he offered his advice.”

Premier Jacinta Allan praised Bush’s transformation of the New Zealand police force under a “prevention first” model, with offending falling and public trust in police climbing during his tenure as commissioner from 2014 to 2020.

The model gave officers more discretion over prosecution, freeing up time that would have otherwise been spent on paperwork for low-level offences, and sharpened understanding of the drivers of crime such as drugs, alcohol and family violence.

Asked if it might see Victorian police issue fewer fines in favour of more direct family support, Bush said: “All that.” But he stressed the change would start with a shift in mindset. (He’s previously admitted to facing some initial resistance to the approach among NZ police.)

“Wherever you go into any crime scene whether a family home or a burglary you’ve got to start thinking: how do we never come back here?” Bush said on Friday. “How do we make sure this person is never victimised again?”

Bush has been described by police, politicians and crime prevention experts back home as honest, fair, innovative and “a hard bastard” on crooks.

As he was sworn into his new gig at the chapel of the police academy in Glen Waverley, a traditional powhiri Maori ceremony was performed – to signify the transfer of Bush and his family from the care of the Maori people to Victoria Police, a police spokeswoman explained.

The cost was modest, Allan told reporters outside, with those flying in from New Zealand to wish Bush well travelling at their own expense.

That included, Bush told this masthead, senior police and ministers back home who were at his own wedding.

“It was really special,” he said outside on the steps of the chapel, before the lights of TV cameras descended.

“But I was worried,” he quipped, “they might start telling the same stories they told at my wedding ...”

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