Former Victoria Police chief Christine Nixon has defended her decision to go out for dinner on Black Saturday, just hours after being told Victorians could die in massive bushfires.
There have been growing calls for Nixon to resign, with Family First senator Steve Fielding saying this morning that she should be sacked.
Giving evidence to the Bushfires Royal Commission yesterday, Ms Nixon said she had a meal and monitored the bushfires through the internet, television and radio on the night of February 7, 2009.
However today she admitted she had gone to a hotel for dinner with two friends that night, after visiting the Integrated Emergency Coordination Centre (IECC).
She had been told at the centre there would be a likely loss of life in the raging bushfires, which went on to kill 173 people.
"I did say in the statement I gave to the (royal) commission that I had a meal and I didn't say, obviously, at the time that I had gone to a local hotel and had a meal with two friends," she told ABC Radio.
"That's all it was, it was a very quick meal and I went back home again and received many calls and monitored the situation."
Ms Nixon is now the head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, which coordinates the activities of government agencies and community organisations involved in the post-bushfires rehabilitation process.
Senator Fielding said anyone who abandoned their post at such a crucial time should not be in charge of the authority.
"It's beyond belief that the state's top cop was more interested in going out to dinner with friends than steering the police force through this country's biggest natural disaster," he said in a statement.
"It is obvious to me that Christine Nixon is just a figurehead and can't be trusted to take charge of important operations".
