Vic: Nixon called back to commission=2

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-2010
Vic: Nixon called back to commission=2

Ms Nixon denied on Wednesday that she had misled the commission by not telling it she
had gone to the pub.

"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 on Wednesday.

She was not available for comment on Thursday.

It is believed the commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague,
will seek clarification on Ms Nixon's movements during the day and evening of February
7.

She has said she was at the State Emergency Response Coordination Centre at police
headquarters between midday and 1.30pm and arrived at the Integrated Emergency Coordination
Centre (IECC) in East Melbourne at around 3.30pm.

After being briefed by fire chiefs that lives could be lost, she left the IECC to go
home and then went to the Metropolitan Hotel in North Melbourne for dinner.

Ms Nixon has since apologised for leaving her post and has the support of Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd and Premier John Brumby to keep her job at the jointly commonwealth and state
funded VBRRA.

As police chief at the time of the fires, Ms Nixon was head of emergency response during
the inferno but said she left other "very capable" people in charge while she monitored
the situation.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe defended her absence from the IECC
when he appeared at the bushfires royal commission nearly 12 months ago.

"The chief commissioner doesn't have to sit there ... providing the chief commissioner
is satisfied that the coordination arrangements and structures are in place and are effectively
dealing with the coordination function," he told the commission in May last year.

There have also been calls for Victoria's emergency services minister Bob Cameron to
be called before the royal commission.

Mr Cameron was ultimately in charge on Black Saturday but he has still not given evidence
to the commission over a year since Australia's worst bushfires.

"He should have been the first witness," Arthurs Creek Brigade CFA captain David McGahy
told AAP on Thursday.

"It's an absurdity. He's the minister for emergency services, he's the boss and he's
still failed to appear."

Mr Cameron arrived at the control centre at 7pm and left at midnight but did not speak
to Ms Nixon or the premier over the entire evening.

Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said it was "absolutely essential" for Mr
Cameron to give testimony.

"At least appear before the royal commission and detail what happened to command and
control on Black Saturday," he told reporters.

AAP pmu/it/jlw

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES NIXON WRAP 2 MELBOURNE

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