Sinner or Scapegoat?
The Age asked residents of Marysville what they thought of Christine Nixon’s actions and testimony.
Some are angry.
“I’m bloody angry”
Some are more philosophical.
Mark…said there was nothing Ms Nixon nor anyone from the State Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre could have done to prevent the fire sweeping into Marysville. “But that’s not the point. The point is a captain doesn’t leave the bridge. While she was sitting there slurping up the soup du jour, my mates were dying.”
Some believe she has done a great job and is being used as a scapegoat.
They believe Ms Nixon has done a “terrific job” with the authority and is now being scapegoated.
Some say that she should do the ‘honourable’ thing: resign.
“She made some mistakes of judgment but to come out of it honourably I’d say to her, accept the praise for the past year but now take responsibility, do the honourable thing and resign.”
Others, ask that she step aside, but they have more of a political agenda.
In an attempt at defence, Ms Nixon has tried to use the, ‘leave my family out of this’ defence. This defence did not work for her. It undermines it.
Kel Glare, former Chief Commissioner of Police for Victoria declares that, ‘she should resign’.
Mr Glare said he was shocked by Ms Nixon’s actions and believed her position was untenable. “What she’s really said is ‘I was operationally incompetent to the extent that I believed I couldn’t do anything to help’,” he told The Sunday Age. ”And for someone running an organisation that is largely operational, that is simply not good enough.
“In disasters, the police are looked to for leadership and in the field on Black Saturday many police responded magnificently, but that’s just what is expected of police in disaster situations.”
Mr Glare, speaking for the first time about the controversy, said: “In the end, she had a responsibility and she just simply absented herself at the critical times and that can never be acceptable.”
It’s telling, that a person who held that role would make a statement like this.
