Vic: Hotel dinner after bushfires deaths warning was OK, Nixon

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-2010
Vic: Hotel dinner after bushfires deaths warning was OK, Nixon

MELBOURNE, April 7 AAP - Former Victoria Police chief Christine Nixon has defended
her decision to go out for dinner on Black Saturday, hours after being told that people
could die in the massive bushfires.

Ms Nixon went to a hotel for dinner with two friends after visiting the Integrated
Emergency Co-Ordination Centre (IECC) earlier on February 7 last year.

She had been told at the centre that there would be a likely loss of life in the raging
bushfires, which went on to kill 173 people.

Giving evidence to the Bushfires Royal Commission on Tuesday, Ms Nixon said she had
a meal and monitored the bushfires through the internet, television and radio on the night
of February 7.

But Wednesday's Herald Sun reported she told the newspaper she had gone out to a bistro
for dinner with friends that night.

In an interview with ABC Radio, Ms Nixon defended the decision to go out to dinner with friends.

"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 said.

"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 said her hotel dinner had no impact on her ability to monitor the bushfires.

"Look, I don't think it had any - technology these days is very capable of finding
you wherever you are ... I clearly had my phone with me and was able to be contacted."

She described "one of the newspaper's" coverage of her dinner as over the top, implying
that she was somehow celebrating, which was a "disgrace".

Ms Nixon now heads the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.

AAP gfr/goc/mn

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES BLACK NIXON

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