Nixon's unexpected exit could reduce hostility to Labor

The ex-police commissioner is expected to receive harsh criticism in the bushfires report

The ex-police commissioner is expected to receive harsh criticism in the bushfires report

IT was in the ruins of Marysville, just days after Black Saturday, that John Brumby asked Christine Nixon to head the government's bushfire reconstruction and recovery authority.

Nixon was still Victorian police commissioner but was due to retire in a matter of weeks. In the Premier's mind she was the perfect candidate for the tough job. She was a familiar face to Victorians and had been very loyal to the government throughout her time as head of police.

Nixon later said it was "a job I couldn't say no to". She wasn't exactly roughing it either. It was a difficult job trying to rebuild the lives of Black Saturday survivors, but it was a highly paid position with a $345,000 salary.

Eighteen months later and she is gone as its chief, having resigned on the same day the federal election was called. The last few months of her tenure were marked by scandal and repeated calls for her to quit. All for actions that happened before her work had begun as chairwoman of the Victorian Bushfires Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.

Could Brumby have known on that day what Nixon did -- or failed to do -- on Black Saturday? But whatever knowledge Brumby may have had about Nixon's actions on February 7, he couldn't have predicted the controversy she would cause.

It started with her failing to tell the bushfires royal commission that when she left the command centre on Black Saturday at 6pm, it was not to go home but to go out to dinner with friends. She then defended herself, saying she simply "had to eat" and had left capable people in charge.

As the weeks went on -- and under threat of more stories detailing her movements on Black Saturday -- Nixon reluctantly gave more details. She admitted she went to the hairdresser in the morning despite authorities warning it was going to be the worst bushfire conditions in history. She said she left her office to meet her biographer.

"It was a recurring appointment, one I could have cancelled but I believed that I could carry out my duties. As well, I had my phone with me and was available," she insisted.

The public was outraged. The Herald Sun ran a front-page editorial outlining 10 reasons why Nixon should quit, but she would not go. Then came the attack from the royal commission.

"Leadership and command is not exercised by being available, if necessary, at the end of a telephone," counsel assisting the commission, Jack Rush, said about Nixon's conduct. "It is unacceptable . . . that at the height of the fire and emergency, as people sought refuge in CFA sheds . . . that those at the apex of the legislative structure in this state were not present, actively on duty, exercising and showing leadership by their presence at this critical time."

Still Nixon would not leave her post and Brumby would not sack the former police chief. Her tenure divided the public. Some in Labor started to worry that her staying -- attributed by some to Brumby's fierce loyalty -- would damage the government in the year of a state election.

Earlier this month, two weeks out from the royal commission's final report, Nixon told a group of bushfire survivors she had decided to quit.

The next day she was rushed to hospital to have gall bladder surgery. She is now recovering.

Many have questioned the timing of her announcement. The opposition has demanded to know what role Brumby had in this, given the expected lashing his government -- and especially Nixon -- is expected to get from the royal commission report next Saturday.

"I don't accept that at all," Brumby says of allegations that the timing was deliberate and he was involved in her decision.

"I got the letter from her on the Thursday and spoke to her on the phone on the Friday . . . she had made up her mind to make this announcement to community recovery committees on the Saturday. Unless she is a mind-reader, I doubt that she had been aware that the Prime Minister would make that announcement on the Saturday."

Nixon also said she was not trying to hide behind an election or duck criticism from the royal commission.

"I don't think any of us understood how hard it was going to be," she said of her job.

"For me I wanted to think about getting a bit more balance in my life, I want to think about taking some time off, but I also know that I wanted to continue working with these people in a voluntary way."

Whatever the reasons behind her resignation, Brumby's role or the timing of it, there is no doubt it gives the Labor government a get-out-of-jail-free card when the final royal commission report is handed down.

Following the similarly low-key departure of Country Fire Authority head Russell Rees earlier this year -- and in the midst of the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal -- the two biggest liabilities for the government have gone.

Come next Saturday, Labor will now be focused on "moving forward" to the next fire season and not "playing the blame game" of the past.

But what about accountability? By effectively getting out before they got hit, Rees, and now Nixon, have evaded taking any responsibility for their leadership failings on the day of the biggest peacetime disaster in Australia's history.

Whether voters hold the Brumby government accountable for these failures will only be known once Victorians have cast their votes on November 27.