As you all know Christine Nixon went home early on Black Saturday and out to dinner. This has been somewhat controversial news in Melbourne, with some condemning her and others saying, ‘well what could she have done?’. I think leaving her post showed poor judgement – people in her position have to stand around looking grim even if there is very little that they can actually do.
Andrew Bolt documents a whole bunch of things that she didn’t do at all.
Not once did she check if police had fulfilled their formal responsibility to issue warnings to towns in the path of the fires.
From 1.30pm to 3pm, she actually left the SERCC and retired to her office to clean up paperwork, neither seeking nor receiving in those 90 minutes a single briefing or call on the fires.
Nor did she call any police in the fire zones to check their wellbeing, ask for news or offer help.
She did not call the Premier once, even to discuss – as is her job – declaring a state of emergency.
She did not call in her Deputy Commissioner in charge of disasters, Kieran Walshe, and he himself – perhaps following his boss’s example – did not turn up at work until nightfall, and only to give a press conference.
She failed to check that every regional commander in the fire-prone areas was at their post, and to this day does not know if they were.
Now I have never been a fan. She was appointed by the then Bracks government for all the wrong reasons.
She was hired from the NSW force not because she’d succeeded, but because she seemed fresh, honest – and an agent of fashionable feminist change.
She came vowing not to Uphold the Right, as is the police motto, but to “keep the peace”, she said. To negotiate, to be “non-deferential, anti-authoritarian and collegiate”.
This is the sweet seeming she promised. The reality, though, is that we got a feminised and demoralised force that too often surrenders the streets to mobs. One that excused away the rise in violent crime; failed to stop a gangland war until 27 people were killed; lowered physical tests to shoehorn in more and weaker women; and let the force dress like Sloppy Joe, undeserving of respect.
And in Nixon we got a chief commissioner who didn’t just blow $40 million on a dud IT system or lead a team riven by hatreds, but one who cuddled her Labor masters, hid the truth on ethnic crime, and wrongly claimed her freebie flight to the US was given by Qantas to her husband.
I don’t care about the QANTAS freebie – but the other things do matter. Here is the problem; the Bracks government was looking for something in particular and she came promising to deliver. She has delivered what she promised. The government wanted a ‘lets all hold hands and sing kumbaya’ approach to law and order and that is what they got. We are now reaping the whirlwind.
Bolt’s column is devastating – but let’s not blame Nixon, the blame needs to be placed at the feet of the people who appointed her. Sure Bracks is gone, but his government remains. Nixon’s was a poor, politicised appointment, and those responsible for that appointment deserve the blame more than does Nixon.
Bolt’s column [ad hom alert, ad hom alert] is devastating. The woman is an incompetent, mendacious, lazy disgrace.
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 11:07 am
Some real insights there CL. Considered and thoughtful as ever. But in fairness, I think Nixon fails so badly in your eyes because her achievments and work ethic fall so far short of your own. OK, she has a MPA (Harvard) Dip.Lab.Law (Sydney University), BA (Macquarie University); and she rose through the ranks to become NSW assistant police commissioner, before getting the top job in Vic, bio here. But, how many comments does she make on Catallaxy threads, huh? That’s the question you have to ask yourself. I fear that most of us for short of your record for life-time achievement CL, a cross all must bear.
The Dirty Digger
9 Apr 10 at 11:24 am
I’m genuinely surprised at how aloof she appears have been on Black Saturday. There really is a Nero(ian?) quality to it all.
dover_beach
9 Apr 10 at 11:28 am
The Dirty Digger
Well thats certainly convinced me she was the best person for the job, the police part of the fire response was handled cometently, and crime has fallen…..
So she used an academic route to achive promotion, just what the police needed an over educated idiot.
Mole
9 Apr 10 at 11:31 am
Dip.Lab.Law
HAHAHAHA!
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 11:31 am
Diploma of Labour Law?
hahahahaha! perfect qualification for being police.
jtfsoon
9 Apr 10 at 11:32 am
Care to share your academic attainments CL?
The Dirty Digger
9 Apr 10 at 11:33 am
I’m actually surprised this incompetent, greedy porker hasn’t got some kind of TAFE certificate in catering.
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 11:35 am
yes, I don’t suppose labor relations have any bearing on being able to lead an organisation with thousands of staff; nor would her expertise in the area have anything to do with the fact that reportedly the Vic force had much greater success at holding onto trained officers under her watch. Nah. Couldn’t have.
The Dirty Digger
9 Apr 10 at 11:35 am
If Nixon had stayed at her post it wouldn’t have saved a single life. She wouldnt know a bushfire from a barbecue.
But if she really did lie to a Royal Commission about her wherabouts etc, she should resign any official post she holds. In fact she might even face a few charges.
Bill
9 Apr 10 at 11:39 am
If Nixon had stayed at her post it wouldn’t have saved a single life.
Might’ve saved 3 sheep, 16 chickens and a buffalo from the gallows.
Infidel Tiger
9 Apr 10 at 11:44 am
yes, I don’t suppose labor relations have any bearing on being able to lead an organisation with thousands of staff…
The Dip.Lab.Law in operation:
Passive – about everything but dinner.
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 11:46 am
TDD I don’t quite understand your disappointment in CL. The above typical CL comment is remarkably illustrative of a sharp perceptive mind at work – capable of producing original and discerning insights at the drop of a hat, advancing well informed and reasoned argument, balance and sagacity are CL’s obvious strengths, consistently demonstrated on this blog for all to see!!
I bear my cross with humility.
DB I think you will find the adjective to be “Neronian”
ennui
9 Apr 10 at 12:24 pm
DB I think you will find the adjective to be “Neronian”
Which was what I thought until doubt intervened.
dover_beach
9 Apr 10 at 12:28 pm
It’s his moderation that I admire above all.
The Dirty Digger
9 Apr 10 at 12:28 pm
“grandpa started the fire.”
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 1:03 pm
You got me there CL, I did use a tasteless example to say that there may have been another cause of the fire, apart from insulation. I understand that a man of your moderation, restraint and thoughfulness would be shocked. If I have offended your delicate sensibilities in any way, what can I say but that I feel your pain. Truly, I do. Still, there was another explanation for the fire, so points for that?
The Dirty Digger
9 Apr 10 at 1:07 pm
She has delivered what she promised. The government wanted a ‘lets all hold hands and sing kumbaya’ approach to law and order and that is what they got. We are now reaping the whirlwind.
Sinclair, this isn’t true. Nixon inherited a police force riddled with corruption, and which was notoriously racist and homophobic (and had produced multiple incidents of such, in addition to a string of bungled sexual offence investigations). Then you have the trigger-happy image of Vic police, where two dozen people (largely mental health cases) have been gunned down. So some of Nixon’s PR campaigns in this regard were actually a legitimate strategy to get the community aligned with the police a little more. Crime detection simply won’t happen if large swathes of the populace regard the coppers as ‘dogs’ and close their doors to them.
On the other hand, the powers of Vic police have actually increased substantially over the past few years. There’s nothing ‘kumbaya’ about police being able to stop and search sans warrant. And they now have to issue a certain number of intervention orders to meet a KPI when dealing with domestics.
THR
9 Apr 10 at 1:14 pm
‘Nixon inherited a police force riddled with corruption, and which was notoriously racist and homophobic’
These are very harsh claims to make against the Victorian Police Force, THC, and they don’t match my recollection of the Victorian Police Force at that time. What is your evidence to back these claims?
johno
9 Apr 10 at 5:14 pm
What is your evidence to back these claims?
Concerns about corruption in Vic police have been longstanding and extensive. Pollies have repeatedly rebuffed calls for a Royal Commission. Some incidents that come to mind are the leaking of informants’ details, corruption in the drug squad, and St Kilda police managing to have a stash of drugs and guns in the roof of their station.
One homophobic incident in particular stands out, and that was the raid on a Melbourne nightclub in the 1990s, in which scores of patrons were strip-searched.
Claims of racism are more difficult to substantiate. Recently, police in Melbolurne’s North-West conceded that it was a major problem as recently as 5 years ago, abnd that they had made major efforts to combat it. My own personal observations of police are that a minority are fairly brazenly contemptuous toward Africans and Middle Easterners. The force itself is pretty unreflective of Melbourne’s make-up. Almost everybody in it, male or female, fits the stereotype of an authoritarian, blokey, ockey-type guy. There’s a disproportionate number of dubious moustaches. The few wogs in the force are largely ockerfied, and there’s maybe three Asians working for the cops in the whole state. Indians and Sri Lankans make up about 7% of Victoria, but I’ve enver seen one in the police force. Forget about anybody more exotic than that.
THR
9 Apr 10 at 5:47 pm
Oh, and high-profile incidents of coppers persecuting Jews aren’t a great look either:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/racial-taunts-claim-against-police/story-e6frf7kx-1111112853806
THR
9 Apr 10 at 5:54 pm
There’s a disproportionate number of dubious moustaches.
Brilliant.
dover_beach
9 Apr 10 at 6:02 pm
The few wogs in the force are largely ockerfied, and there’s maybe three Asians working for the cops in the whole state. Indians and Sri Lankans make up about 7% of Victoria, but I’ve enver seen one in the police force. Forget about anybody more exotic than that.
THR is right. We have been shamefully let down by the people we welcome here with ope arms. We should be castigating the Asian, Sril Lankan and Indian communities for not giving anything back to the community. If they actually cared about this country they’d join the “the thin blue line” and help uphold the rule of the land.
Was that your point?
Infidel Tiger
9 Apr 10 at 6:03 pm
THR – nobody is claiming that the police are all angels. But I struggle to understand how Nixon’s appointment has improved law and order in the state.
Sinclair Davidson
9 Apr 10 at 6:15 pm
THR
Now your smothering the Nixon/Vic Police debate with your empty signifier, racism. Is there any issue in Australia at all that cannot be reduced to plain old “racism?”
Peter Patton
9 Apr 10 at 6:15 pm
But I struggle to understand how Nixon’s appointment has improved law and order in the state.
Perhaps it hasn’t. I haven’t seen the stats. My point is that she is often criticised for being a PC, namby-pamby commissioner, as a result of her PR campaigns. The only reason the PR campaigns were necessary is because (a minority of) police got large sections of the community offside through their bad behaviour. It’s worth remembering that the police association has hated every commissioner for many years now.
This one’s for Peter ‘racism is an empty signifier (sic)’ Patton: police covering their badges and telling the darkies to go back to Africa:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/victorian-police-watchdog-shelved-racist-complaints/story-e6frg6nf-1225842081749
THR
9 Apr 10 at 6:22 pm
“There’s a disproportionate number of dubious moustaches.”
I’m not entirely sure what that means. Jamie from Mythbusters would resent it, I’m sure.
steve from brisbane
9 Apr 10 at 6:23 pm
Personally, I blame the Jews.
BirdLab
9 Apr 10 at 6:29 pm
Why should I be devastated by reading Bolt’s column?
By both Sinclair and CLs information Bolt is devastating and as CL is beyond refutation (well that’s his opinion and if you want move on past the first course it’s probably wise to nod and get another drink) its almost a fact.
Therefore I will take heed of their advice and do my utmost to avoid Bolt.
Why should I seek devastation? – I’m not into this much punishment. There are special places for this where such folk get their rocks off – some are calling them churches.
Not for me, too much good stuff to live for.
rog
9 Apr 10 at 8:23 pm
Like your whale spotting/slaughtering business.
Any investors yet, Rog?
THR is the world’s most curious rampaging lefty.
Loves band camp big shot Kevin.
Loves the cops.
C.L.
9 Apr 10 at 9:21 pm