There was an excellent piece in Fairfax’s The National Times by Kathy Stewart, a Kinglake woman who lost her home and many friends on Black Saturday. In her article, headed “Mudslide of blame buries the real issues”, Stewart points out that Bushfires Royal Commission is ”now in danger of delivering so little in real terms because it has been hijacked by those intent on finding a scapegoat”.

She goes on to say what an excellent job Christine Nixon has done as head of the Bushfire Reconstruction Authority and how counter productive caving in to her old enemies and sacking her would be.

The comments that followed were generally in agreement with Stewart, but there was one in particular that I found very interesting and sums up why, despite being commissioner of police at the time of the disaster, Christine Nixon’s presence was not as essential to the emergency effort as her detractors are making out.  

John, of Sydney writes:

I have said this on an earlier blog and I will say it again. I am an retired NSW Police Emergency Services Operator. I have a very great deal of experience in working in Emergency Rooms during all kinds of natural and man made disasters. Most of the criticism of Nixon comes from very ill informed people. I have seen such foolish comments as “provide leadership” or “take command”. People who make these remarks have been watching too much American TV. The people who work in Emergency Operations Centres during disasters are far to busy to care whether the Commissioner is present or not and far to professional to need leadership provided.

As for the Commissioner “taking command” that would be a very loud declaration of her lack of confidence in her Senior Operational Commanders and completely unacceptable. So what are we left with for the Commissioner to do? Well with all due respect to Police Commissioners everywhere the answer is … nothing. A Police Commissioner in an Emergency Room is, to use an old Australian saying “as useless as tits on a bull”. Their role is to summarise the situation to the Government and its Ministers and to fly the flag after the event. Now this may not suit people who live in some sort of a fantasy American sitcom but it is the truth nonetheless.

So Nixon went to dinner on the night of the bush fires? So what? She had a mobile phone with her and could if necessary be appraised of the situation that way. The fact that she wasnt rang means there was at that stage nothing to tell her. This whole thing is a disgusting witch hunt by people who want to take the spotlight of themselves.

As I have previously written at Groupthink, it really is time the Bushfires Royal Commission started looking at how another Black Saturday can be avoided, rather than letting a pack of rabid lawyers loose on convenient scapegoats.

Tags: Black Saturday, Christine Nixon