Nixon grilled over Black Saturday dinner

14 Apr 2010, 5:49 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Victoria's former police chief has admitted she didn't speak to anyone for three hours at a critical time on Black Saturday.

Victoria's former police chief has admitted she didn't speak to anyone for three hours at a critical time on Black Saturday but says she had confidence in the people delegated to manage the disaster.

While the state's death toll mounted, Christine Nixon had no telephone discussions about the dire bushfire situation between 6pm and 9pm on February 7, it emerged on Wednesday.

Charged with coordinating the state's emergency response, Ms Nixon could not access internet, radio, television or email during dinner with friends at her local pub in North Melbourne, the inquiry heard.

She also kept a private appointment early that morning and worked on matters unrelated to the bushfires despite statewide emergency preparations during the week for the horror conditions forecast.

The packed the hearing room heard Ms Nixon's deputy, Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana, worked tirelessly from 6am until about 1am the next day to keep emergency management staff informed of developments across three control and coordination centres.

Mr Fontana said he received little instruction from Ms Nixon on the day but took charge in his role.

Police had been "going non-stop" since about Australia Day in January, he said.

"We were on high alert the whole period," he told the commission.

The bushfires killed 173 people and decimated homes and businesses in 107 rural communities.

Ms Nixon's admission she had no access to media updates during the evening is at odds with earlier evidence that she had gone home and monitored events from a variety of sources.

Fronting the bushfires royal commission for the second time, a defensive Ms Nixon faced intense examination by counsel assisting the inquiry, Rachel Doyle, SC.

When she left the Integrated Emergency Coordination Centre (IECC) in a car driven by Mr Fontana about 6pm, Ms Nixon was dropped home and then walked to the Metropolitan Hotel for a casual meal with her husband and two friends, where she spent about 80 minutes, but consumed no alcohol.

Ms Doyle suggested the omission was made deliberately to avoid embarrassment but Ms Nixon told the hearing she had omitted to include the pub meal in her submission because she didn't see any reason to explain it.

"I didn't think it was relevant," she told the commission.

"Whether I had a meal at home and prepared it myself or whether I had a meal otherwise I didn't see as being important."

She said Mr Fontana and Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe were unaware of her dinner date but said both knew they could call her at any time.

"People knew that I had a telephone and that they could contact me," she said.

But Ms Nixon, who repeatedly told the commission her phone was switched on during dinner, did not take any telephone calls or receive text messages after leaving the IECC until she took a call from police media director Nicole McKechnie at 8.56pm.

Ms Nixon said she couldn't have added any fresh thinking to the coordination effort at the IECC, and stressed she had faith in the people delegated to perform their duties, including Mr Walshe and Mr Fontana.

"Both of them are more experienced than I am in terms of emergency management procedures," she said.

"And that's why I put my faith in them to do that job.

"It was not my job to swoop in and take control...

"We were not the combat or responsible agencies, we were the coordinating agency..."

Ms Doyle said that the absence of Ms Nixon's driver, personal assistant, note-taker or police uniform on February 7 and a table pre-booked for dinner all suggested Ms Nixon was not prepared for active duty that day, a fact the former police chief has previously confirmed.

"I believed that we had very good people there carrying out the responsibilities and my role was to have put that all into place beforehand..." Ms Nixon said.

"I think all of us who were involved in the emergency management response have considered our roles and obviously wondered whether we could have done things differently."

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