Cover Story

Putting community first

^{Casey-Ann Seaniger | APRIL / MAY 2009}

Christine Nixon has achieved a lot of firsts in her life. She was the first female assistant commissioner of the NSW police force and first female commissioner of the Victorian force. Her new role is the head of the recently-formed Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.

Within a matter of days, Christine Nixon went from being head of Victoria’s police force to running the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority at the request of the Victorian Government.

On the front line, Ms Nixon has seen firsthand the aftermath of the devastating Black Saturday bushfires and heard chilling tales from survivors.

In her role with the reconstruction and recovery authority, Ms Nixon has toured fire affected areas to start planning for the rebuilding and recovery of these communities.

It will start with talking to people, helping them work through what they need, and giving them hope for a way forward.

For Ms Nixon though, working with people in the toughest of conditions is in her blood.

Ms Nixon was sworn in as chief commissioner in April 2001 and was the first woman to be in charge of an Australian police force.

Reflecting on her 36 years in the police force, Ms Nixon, now 55, says there isn’t much she would do differently if she had the time over again.

During her time as chief commissioner, crime rates dropped by 24.5 per cent, the road toll dropped by 26 per cent and fewer police officers left the force.

The Melbourne gangland/Purana case, which successfully ended nearly a decade of gangland wars, was a highlight for Ms Nixon and her team.

Known for her anti-corruption stance, Ms Nixon’s style of modern policing was often criticised by the old-fashioned police officers and she often came to blows with the Police Association.

But in her own words, she says her style of management was about holding people accountable “no matter who they happen to be”.

You’ve been touring the communities affected by the bushfires, tell me about some of the people you’ve met and the stories you’ve heard?

We’ve met an amazing range of people, starting with the emergency service personnel. Some of them were working for days and days straight and they had to do things they never quite imagined before. They were just fighting fires so large. They’ve done an outstanding job as well as the SES. I remember going to Marysville and meeting up with police from Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand as well as Victorian police and they were sifting through massive fire scenes to try and see traces of bodies. They must have been so exhausted but they kept on going. Then there were the stories from people about how they managed to escape and how they helped each other and now they’re thinking about their lives and their future. I’ll never forget some of the stories.

The media talks about how those affected are going to have to rebuild their lives, but what’s actually involved and where do they start?

Some people have not been back to their homes at all since the fires and part of the reason is that they can’t go back on their land because the coroner is still investigating. There’s a real spiral when you have these disasters, a sense of well, “we’ll be OK”, but then later on it dawns on them. Some communities may get very angry and unhappy about why they were the ones that were targeted. Others feel guilty because they have survived, their families have survived, their home was OK and it’s a matter of how they can overcome that guilt; for some that means helping others. For others it is counselling, support and of course, time.

What have you discovered about the courage of Australian people in tough times?

There were so many people from so many backgrounds and ages that came together, no questions asked. The support just rose above everything else. It’s not just the massive amount of money that’s been raised but all the support, like the people who committed to help with small things from the start, and they are still helping now. So even though there have been thousands of people affected by the bushfires, it’s been great to see how the community has come together.

How did you get involved in police force?

My father was a police officer so part of why I joined was because I knew a fair bit about policing. There were very few women in the police force when I joined in the ‘70s but more opportunities came up, and I worked myself up to a more senior police officer. I dealt with a lot of challenges, and the same barriers many women face in other jobs, until I became the first female assistant commissioner of NSW in 1994 and then when I got the job in Victoria.

How would you describe your style of policing and management over the years, because you had a more modern approach than others, didn’t you?

I think I’ve reflected more modern management trends based on a very open style. I still trust people when people have let me down and while people will be corrupt, you need to deal with that corruption. My time in policing has been about a commitment to the community, about opening policing up to be more accountable and to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to join the police force.

What kind of challenges did you face being head of what is traditionally known as a boys’ club?

It is a boys’ club but I’ve been in it since I was 19 years old so I’ve understood what it’s like and I’ve tried to deal with people fairly decently. I also don’t put up with the bad behaviours, the bad language. It’s about setting standards - what you’ll accept and what you won’t. It’s also about holding people accountable no matter who they happen to be and having the assistance in place to be able to manage and to deal with people so if you do all of that, the boys’ club side of things begins to disappear. Being the chief commissioner also helped (laughs).

What was the Melbourne gangland/Purana case like to work on?

My role was to provide support to the investigators and to help them get sufficient powers and money to focus on the task. We were responding to the gangland wars in a very desperate time. Once we started to look at the intelligence and pull that together, we had to then implement the way to go forward. It was a great experience to be able to celebrate with the team when it was over. The more important part then was how to make sure this never happened again, what were the lessons we learned from it and how can we change criminal investigations in the future so that what we learned in Purana was applicable to the whole way criminal investigations were conducted.

What kind of emotional effect did your position as chief commissioner have on your personal life?

I have a very resilient family and I think that really helped me to separate the hard parts of the work to my personal life. From a very early age, it was like ‘toughen up’. I didn’t have time to indulge in that sense of ‘poor me, this is horrible’. I was never brought up that way and I think that’s helped me to deal with a lot of things.

What do you have planned for your future?

This job with the reconstruction and recovery authority is for another year at least and I’m very committed to it. After that, I will pick up where I was going before with working on boards and with the government, spending time with my husband and also some travelling and perhaps a look at a book.