Christine Nixon admits cutting her hair, working on memoirs on Black Saturday | Herald Sun
It's taken me awhile to put something into words about this debarcle. I was gobsmacked to learn of Christine Nixons whereabouts on this day . I know what I was doing and have looked at timelines of different incidences around the state that day and of what others were doing.
then you look at what she did that day. Our top cop, the one in charge of everything.
she was having a discussion with her biographer? whilst Yarram and Devon North was under attack? then later went home ....at six? and went out for a pub meal in which she says she didn't recieve any calls or updates? Whilst people were dying all over the place?..........it's beyond belief....and it hurts.
Just in case people forget the emormity of this womans actions in being away from her post............here's a reminder. and this is only in one place!!! looks like a facebook friends list really. Only more tragic.
Our Darkest Day - The Age
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
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fuzzywuzzy
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bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
Fuzzy, that is so very tragic. No wonder you are so enraged - that woman should be removed from her position. She knew what was happening, she should have cancelled all those 'self' activities and been on duty. Not fit for her job. The boss?
A sick joke. She can't be normal.
Fuzzy, it is no surprise to me that you have been badly affected by all that happened. You must have lost people close to you, or at least people that you knew. You have feelings. That woman obviously hasn't.
It is good that you have, at last, been able to write about it. Perhaps, by talking more about things that happened, one day you may find a little inner peace. I am sure that I can't begin to imagine what you must have gone through, and probably still are. I can only try to understand.
A sick joke. She can't be normal.
Fuzzy, it is no surprise to me that you have been badly affected by all that happened. You must have lost people close to you, or at least people that you knew. You have feelings. That woman obviously hasn't.
It is good that you have, at last, been able to write about it. Perhaps, by talking more about things that happened, one day you may find a little inner peace. I am sure that I can't begin to imagine what you must have gone through, and probably still are. I can only try to understand.
I'm a Saga-lout, growing old disgracefully
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fuzzywuzzy
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bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
nah I'm fine gill this isn't about me.(the kids are a bit worrisom though)
i'm just gobsmacked at the audacity of this person ... she owes me a Pub meal.......she also changed her story of that day three times. She's been a police officer for decades and she has no notes to refer to of that day? It's unbelievable!!!!
What police officer do you know that doesn't take notes? Kinglake and Marysville was wiped off the map while she ate a meal?????? At that exact time and no one offered to tell her? WTF? well it seems another officer did take notes of phone calls etc. which is at odds with her testimony.
i'm just gobsmacked at the audacity of this person ... she owes me a Pub meal.......she also changed her story of that day three times. She's been a police officer for decades and she has no notes to refer to of that day? It's unbelievable!!!!
What police officer do you know that doesn't take notes? Kinglake and Marysville was wiped off the map while she ate a meal?????? At that exact time and no one offered to tell her? WTF? well it seems another officer did take notes of phone calls etc. which is at odds with her testimony.
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
Like I said Fuzzy, why the eff is that woman still in her job????? 
I'm a Saga-lout, growing old disgracefully
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fuzzywuzzy
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bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
Because they have to play "footsies" first (politics ) to save face. don't worry apparently she has a plum job waiting for her in the private industries.
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
Well I hope she goes soon, and allow somebody who really wants to do the job properly, to get on with it.
I'm a Saga-lout, growing old disgracefully
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fuzzywuzzy
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bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
This just gets worse and worse .....Russell Rees our chief of CFA has just resigned today. What the hell is going on? The royal commission winds up in three months.
CFA chief fire officer Russell Rees resigns | Herald Sun
What bloody premier says a resignation is a good thing ........I think they have found their scapegoat
CFA chief fire officer Russell Rees resigns | Herald Sun
What bloody premier says a resignation is a good thing ........I think they have found their scapegoat
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fuzzywuzzy
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bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
I shouldn't have tears in my eyes but reading htis and losing friends on that day is .....hmmm...................... not sure what to make of any of this anymore.
Our leaders deserted us on Black Saturday
* Andrew Bolt
* From: Herald Sun
* April 30, 2010 12:00AM
HAS Victoria so run out of true leaders? Are we really now led by buck-passers, media tarts and paper-shufflers?
The bushfires royal commission this week could only add to our despair.
And only add, too, to the possibility former police commissioner Christine Nixon could face being charged with perjury.
Black Saturday was a day that should have seen our leaders lead. It was the crisis for which true leaders are born.
For which some secretly dream.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and all that. No war, no Churchill.
Instead, the hour cameth, and the leaders went. To hairdressers and dinner. To their private business. To their farm. To their Bendigo home.
And meanwhile the state burned and 173 people died.
This week it was the turn of Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe, a respected officer, to have his reputation as a leader shredded, and even his truthfulness questioned - or at least put in need of defending.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
First, the context.
The royal commission has already told us the head of the Country Fire Authority, Russell Rees, failed to lead on that dreadful day last February.
With the state in flames, he "did not become actively involved in operational issues, even though the disastrous consequences of the fires began to emerge".
Rees last week resigned.
We've also learned from the royal commission that Nixon, who not only headed the police but was meant under law to co-ordinate the emergency response, instead went to her hairdresser for 90 minutes, discussed her memoirs with her biographer for almost an hour, dined out with friends, and for three hours - at the height of the fires - neither made nor received a single call or SMS.
What work she did, in what she originally claimed on oath was an "active working day", seemed largely limited to the 4 1/2 hours that she put in at the police and emergency response centres, during which she was almost entirely passive, watching others work.
Go higher up the chain. We also know Premier John Brumby spent most of that day at his Harcourt farm, despite having warned the state the day before that it faced "as bad a day as you can imagine".
We know Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron spent almost all day at his Bendigo home before belatedly being called in to the emergency command centre, which he reached some 12 hours after the fires first broke containment lines.
Those are the four people at the very top of the state's response that day.
Walshe was the fifth.
He was the deputy police commissioner in charge of emergencies, and also Nixon's deputy as state co-ordinator of the emergency services during such disasters.
When he first gave evidence to the royal commission last year, Walshe said on oath that he'd spoken to Nixon throughout the day, and "came in about 7pm" to police headquarters.
From 8pm, he said, he took on the "active management role of police emergency response co-ordination".
Nixon's own sworn statement back then confirmed the impression that the two top police in charge of disaster responses were in control and co-operating closely.
"Throughout the day I spoke with Deputy Commissioner Walshe in relation to the fires and impact they were having on the state," she said.
She later testified that she only left the Integrated Emergency Control Centre (IECC) at 6pm after hearing Walshe would be there by 7pm to take over from her.
But this week this picture of an in-charge police chief handing over control to her deputy was exposed as a fake.
The royal commission had in the meantime got hold of the phone records of both, and this week recalled Walshe to explain himself.
THIS time Walshe admitted he hadn't talked to Nixon all day - not until 9.45pm, and then only to discuss a media conference.
What's more, he hadn't reached police headquarters at 7pm, as he'd earlier claimed, but at 8.50pm.
Indeed, he hadn't yet decided to come in at all when Nixon left the IECC, and only changed his mind after someone else told him she'd vanished and people were dying.
That means Nixon left her post without knowing her deputy was coming in, and her sworn claim to the contrary is potentially false.
Walshe, like Nixon, blamed the earlier mistakes in his evidence on an innocent failure to take notes or keep a log at the time - as all serving officers, bosses included, are actually obliged to do under police regulations.
Then, to add to Nixon's shame, he said he'd assumed from a conversation with his boss two days before the fires that she'd be at the headquarters through Black Saturday, which is why he'd decided to stay home.
"I always had a belief in my mind and understanding that she was going to be in the (police headquarters) on the Saturday and that I was going to be on standby and await the need to respond."
As it was, neither turned up for a full day at work when the state needed them most to do their duty. Neither officer was at the helm when seven apocalyptic fires killed scores of people, wiped out whole towns, threatened even Bendigo, and menaced our great power stations.
Neither officer was there to check why more people weren't being warned, and what more could be done to save them.
Oh, and when Walshe did finally arrive at police headquarters, he did not go to the IECC, and did not take over control of police operations or emergency co-ordination as he'd said.
He concentrated instead on giving a press conference, in front of the TV cameras. And Nixon this time was on the phone, suggesting the best media strategy. Cometh the TV cameras, cometh the moths.
Walshe, Nixon and Cameron, the three people nominally in charge of co-ordinating the disaster response, meanwhile left the real work to Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana, who - unlike all of his leaders - rostered himself on to duty that day, took control and worked from dawn until deep in the night.
Now that's leadership.
Indeed, it was Fontana who as early as 6am sent a text to both Nixon and Walshe to warn that the Bunyip fires had already got away. Nixon did not reply. The more hands-on Walshe at least eventually did, and, in his
defence, throughout the day made many calls from home to check what was happening.
There will be excuses, of course, and Nixon has tried most of them, most infamously claiming that nothing she could have done had she stayed would have made much difference, anyway.
Luckily Fontana and the lower ranks serving under him on that day did not share their leaders' fatalism or follow their example, or none would have worked that day and even more people might have died.
BUT Walshe that night demonstrated that perhaps more could have been done, after all, by both Nixon and himself.
One reason he turned up late at the headquarters was that his son-in-law had rung him in a panic, saying he could not reach his parents, brother, sister-in-law and other relatives in Strathewen, which was in flames.
And so Walshe did for his own relatives what he did not do for any other Victorians it was his duty that day to protect.
Here's the relevant part of his cross-examination.
Walshe: I made some phone calls. I spoke to Superintendent John Todor at Diamond Creek ... I was trying to identify had the fire gone into the area where they lived.
I also spoke on a number of occasions to Inspector Pat O'Brien, who was the police service area manager ...
Counsel assisting the commission: While those phone calls clearly informed you about the extent of the Kilmore East fire and its impact on Strathewen, they were made principally in pursuit of your personal concern about your son-in-law's family?
Walshe: That is correct, yes.
Counsel assisting: You certainly didn't make detailed inquiries of that nature in relation to the Churchill fire or the Bendigo fire or any of the other fires you were aware of?
Walshe: No, I didn't because I relied on the information ... from Assistant Commissioner Fontana.
Charged with helping to co-ordinate the rescue and relief of all Victorians on that dreadful day, Walshe stayed for extra hours at home, helping his relatives instead.
This was very human, natural and forgivable, and maybe inevitable - but this wasn't leadership.
Think, too, of Nixon, Brumby and Cameron, and even poor Rees.
On Black Saturday, when so many lowly constables and volunteer firefighters put their duty before their safety to rescue the trapped and rush the burned to safety, which of their leaders seized the day as they did - and led?
Just led.
Our leaders deserted us on Black Saturday | Herald Sun
I've been listening and reading through the Royal commission and we have all these overseas fire experts telling us what to do when they've never lived here etc etc .........then you find out the real reason things went to **** and it's not because we don't know our own terrain or how to cope with it....(everyone likes to tell the average cit how to do this , especially foregners or city folks) It was the indecision from above and total lack of leadership.
Ever felt like you just want to punch someone?
Our leaders deserted us on Black Saturday
* Andrew Bolt
* From: Herald Sun
* April 30, 2010 12:00AM
HAS Victoria so run out of true leaders? Are we really now led by buck-passers, media tarts and paper-shufflers?
The bushfires royal commission this week could only add to our despair.
And only add, too, to the possibility former police commissioner Christine Nixon could face being charged with perjury.
Black Saturday was a day that should have seen our leaders lead. It was the crisis for which true leaders are born.
For which some secretly dream.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and all that. No war, no Churchill.
Instead, the hour cameth, and the leaders went. To hairdressers and dinner. To their private business. To their farm. To their Bendigo home.
And meanwhile the state burned and 173 people died.
This week it was the turn of Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe, a respected officer, to have his reputation as a leader shredded, and even his truthfulness questioned - or at least put in need of defending.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
First, the context.
The royal commission has already told us the head of the Country Fire Authority, Russell Rees, failed to lead on that dreadful day last February.
With the state in flames, he "did not become actively involved in operational issues, even though the disastrous consequences of the fires began to emerge".
Rees last week resigned.
We've also learned from the royal commission that Nixon, who not only headed the police but was meant under law to co-ordinate the emergency response, instead went to her hairdresser for 90 minutes, discussed her memoirs with her biographer for almost an hour, dined out with friends, and for three hours - at the height of the fires - neither made nor received a single call or SMS.
What work she did, in what she originally claimed on oath was an "active working day", seemed largely limited to the 4 1/2 hours that she put in at the police and emergency response centres, during which she was almost entirely passive, watching others work.
Go higher up the chain. We also know Premier John Brumby spent most of that day at his Harcourt farm, despite having warned the state the day before that it faced "as bad a day as you can imagine".
We know Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron spent almost all day at his Bendigo home before belatedly being called in to the emergency command centre, which he reached some 12 hours after the fires first broke containment lines.
Those are the four people at the very top of the state's response that day.
Walshe was the fifth.
He was the deputy police commissioner in charge of emergencies, and also Nixon's deputy as state co-ordinator of the emergency services during such disasters.
When he first gave evidence to the royal commission last year, Walshe said on oath that he'd spoken to Nixon throughout the day, and "came in about 7pm" to police headquarters.
From 8pm, he said, he took on the "active management role of police emergency response co-ordination".
Nixon's own sworn statement back then confirmed the impression that the two top police in charge of disaster responses were in control and co-operating closely.
"Throughout the day I spoke with Deputy Commissioner Walshe in relation to the fires and impact they were having on the state," she said.
She later testified that she only left the Integrated Emergency Control Centre (IECC) at 6pm after hearing Walshe would be there by 7pm to take over from her.
But this week this picture of an in-charge police chief handing over control to her deputy was exposed as a fake.
The royal commission had in the meantime got hold of the phone records of both, and this week recalled Walshe to explain himself.
THIS time Walshe admitted he hadn't talked to Nixon all day - not until 9.45pm, and then only to discuss a media conference.
What's more, he hadn't reached police headquarters at 7pm, as he'd earlier claimed, but at 8.50pm.
Indeed, he hadn't yet decided to come in at all when Nixon left the IECC, and only changed his mind after someone else told him she'd vanished and people were dying.
That means Nixon left her post without knowing her deputy was coming in, and her sworn claim to the contrary is potentially false.
Walshe, like Nixon, blamed the earlier mistakes in his evidence on an innocent failure to take notes or keep a log at the time - as all serving officers, bosses included, are actually obliged to do under police regulations.
Then, to add to Nixon's shame, he said he'd assumed from a conversation with his boss two days before the fires that she'd be at the headquarters through Black Saturday, which is why he'd decided to stay home.
"I always had a belief in my mind and understanding that she was going to be in the (police headquarters) on the Saturday and that I was going to be on standby and await the need to respond."
As it was, neither turned up for a full day at work when the state needed them most to do their duty. Neither officer was at the helm when seven apocalyptic fires killed scores of people, wiped out whole towns, threatened even Bendigo, and menaced our great power stations.
Neither officer was there to check why more people weren't being warned, and what more could be done to save them.
Oh, and when Walshe did finally arrive at police headquarters, he did not go to the IECC, and did not take over control of police operations or emergency co-ordination as he'd said.
He concentrated instead on giving a press conference, in front of the TV cameras. And Nixon this time was on the phone, suggesting the best media strategy. Cometh the TV cameras, cometh the moths.
Walshe, Nixon and Cameron, the three people nominally in charge of co-ordinating the disaster response, meanwhile left the real work to Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana, who - unlike all of his leaders - rostered himself on to duty that day, took control and worked from dawn until deep in the night.
Now that's leadership.
Indeed, it was Fontana who as early as 6am sent a text to both Nixon and Walshe to warn that the Bunyip fires had already got away. Nixon did not reply. The more hands-on Walshe at least eventually did, and, in his
defence, throughout the day made many calls from home to check what was happening.
There will be excuses, of course, and Nixon has tried most of them, most infamously claiming that nothing she could have done had she stayed would have made much difference, anyway.
Luckily Fontana and the lower ranks serving under him on that day did not share their leaders' fatalism or follow their example, or none would have worked that day and even more people might have died.
BUT Walshe that night demonstrated that perhaps more could have been done, after all, by both Nixon and himself.
One reason he turned up late at the headquarters was that his son-in-law had rung him in a panic, saying he could not reach his parents, brother, sister-in-law and other relatives in Strathewen, which was in flames.
And so Walshe did for his own relatives what he did not do for any other Victorians it was his duty that day to protect.
Here's the relevant part of his cross-examination.
Walshe: I made some phone calls. I spoke to Superintendent John Todor at Diamond Creek ... I was trying to identify had the fire gone into the area where they lived.
I also spoke on a number of occasions to Inspector Pat O'Brien, who was the police service area manager ...
Counsel assisting the commission: While those phone calls clearly informed you about the extent of the Kilmore East fire and its impact on Strathewen, they were made principally in pursuit of your personal concern about your son-in-law's family?
Walshe: That is correct, yes.
Counsel assisting: You certainly didn't make detailed inquiries of that nature in relation to the Churchill fire or the Bendigo fire or any of the other fires you were aware of?
Walshe: No, I didn't because I relied on the information ... from Assistant Commissioner Fontana.
Charged with helping to co-ordinate the rescue and relief of all Victorians on that dreadful day, Walshe stayed for extra hours at home, helping his relatives instead.
This was very human, natural and forgivable, and maybe inevitable - but this wasn't leadership.
Think, too, of Nixon, Brumby and Cameron, and even poor Rees.
On Black Saturday, when so many lowly constables and volunteer firefighters put their duty before their safety to rescue the trapped and rush the burned to safety, which of their leaders seized the day as they did - and led?
Just led.
Our leaders deserted us on Black Saturday | Herald Sun
I've been listening and reading through the Royal commission and we have all these overseas fire experts telling us what to do when they've never lived here etc etc .........then you find out the real reason things went to **** and it's not because we don't know our own terrain or how to cope with it....(everyone likes to tell the average cit how to do this , especially foregners or city folks) It was the indecision from above and total lack of leadership.
Ever felt like you just want to punch someone?
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fuzzywuzzy
- Posts: 6596
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:35 pm
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
Our on air coverage of the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission - ABC Gippsland Vic - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Waiting with baited breath here. The Bush fire royal commision report is being handed down today . It will be extremely long reading but worth knowing what is going to happen in the future.
Waiting with baited breath here. The Bush fire royal commision report is being handed down today . It will be extremely long reading but worth knowing what is going to happen in the future.
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fuzzywuzzy
- Posts: 6596
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:35 pm
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/bushfir ... r09_PF.pdf
Well that has helped a lot. At least now I know where I was and at what time I was there. At what stage/time the kids were evacuated and why it became critical. (we were right to get the boys out.)
For the last year I've had very little accurate memory of the fires . I kind of know where I was and what our crew was doing but placing it within a time frame has been difficult and upsetting.
The pic from the Yarram fire station had me a bit weepy and I don't think I can look at other pics at the moment. It still to this day amazes me the speed in which the fire got to Yarram Fortunetly for Woodside the wind changed before it could spread. but I'm never going to forget that ember that fell in front of my car at the station and I still dont understand why we didn't go up if the embers were falling that far south. There was probably a heap of expertise on that day that helped save a lot of houses and people but for me it feels like complete luck.
I have a huge amount of concerns about the recommendations of the report and that link is only to the fires down my way. I'll read the others ...........but not just yet.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 968719.htm
Well that has helped a lot. At least now I know where I was and at what time I was there. At what stage/time the kids were evacuated and why it became critical. (we were right to get the boys out.)
For the last year I've had very little accurate memory of the fires . I kind of know where I was and what our crew was doing but placing it within a time frame has been difficult and upsetting.
The pic from the Yarram fire station had me a bit weepy and I don't think I can look at other pics at the moment. It still to this day amazes me the speed in which the fire got to Yarram Fortunetly for Woodside the wind changed before it could spread. but I'm never going to forget that ember that fell in front of my car at the station and I still dont understand why we didn't go up if the embers were falling that far south. There was probably a heap of expertise on that day that helped save a lot of houses and people but for me it feels like complete luck.
I have a huge amount of concerns about the recommendations of the report and that link is only to the fires down my way. I'll read the others ...........but not just yet.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 968719.htm
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fuzzywuzzy
- Posts: 6596
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:35 pm
bushfires, haircuts, pub meals, and biographers.
nitial warnings and information
B
ox 10.1 The Toolangi DSE crewThe Toolangi DSE crew independently responded to the fire at 15:00, with Mr Mike Lauder, a senior ranger for DSE, as crew leader. By the time the crew arrived, at 15:17, the fire was well alight, had burnt about 40 hectares, and was too large for first attack to be contemplated.37 Under Mr Lauder’s direction, the crew travelled in convoy from the fire’s point of origin to Murrindindi scenic reserve. He knew people were camping there. Not long after arriving, Mr Lauder realised that they—the crew and the 19 campers—were cut off to the north by the fire and were trapped. He directed crew and campers into the river, about 150 metres away. The children sheltered in the DSE vehicles in the river. The crew protected the campers for the next hour-and-a-half. The pumps on the slip-on units were used to spray water on both the vehicles and the surrounding vegetation. No-one was injured, although some campers and crew members suffered from smoke inhalation and were later treated by ambulance officers. One crew member spent the night in hospital.38The Commission commends the Toolangi crew for its initiative and for protecting the campers.
Okay I made the mistake of looking when I shouldn't have ..................What the **** were campers doing out there WITH THEIR CHILDREN?????? ON THAT DAY when everyone was told to stay out of the bloody forests.!!!!!!!
CHRIST you just wanna kick arses sometimes.
B
ox 10.1 The Toolangi DSE crewThe Toolangi DSE crew independently responded to the fire at 15:00, with Mr Mike Lauder, a senior ranger for DSE, as crew leader. By the time the crew arrived, at 15:17, the fire was well alight, had burnt about 40 hectares, and was too large for first attack to be contemplated.37 Under Mr Lauder’s direction, the crew travelled in convoy from the fire’s point of origin to Murrindindi scenic reserve. He knew people were camping there. Not long after arriving, Mr Lauder realised that they—the crew and the 19 campers—were cut off to the north by the fire and were trapped. He directed crew and campers into the river, about 150 metres away. The children sheltered in the DSE vehicles in the river. The crew protected the campers for the next hour-and-a-half. The pumps on the slip-on units were used to spray water on both the vehicles and the surrounding vegetation. No-one was injured, although some campers and crew members suffered from smoke inhalation and were later treated by ambulance officers. One crew member spent the night in hospital.38The Commission commends the Toolangi crew for its initiative and for protecting the campers.
Okay I made the mistake of looking when I shouldn't have ..................What the **** were campers doing out there WITH THEIR CHILDREN?????? ON THAT DAY when everyone was told to stay out of the bloody forests.!!!!!!!
CHRIST you just wanna kick arses sometimes.