I thought Nixon was on duty?
I thought Nixon was on: deputy
“I had understood she was on duty from shortly before 1pm,” he said in a witness statement. “It is my belief that we did discuss what we would do on the weekend, because I did tell [an assistant commissioner] that I would be on standby at home on the Saturday.” This appears to contradict Ms Nixon, who initially said in a statement to the commission that she “prepared for an active day”, but later said she was not rostered on.
But she wasn’t. She spent parts of 7th having a haircut, being interviewed by a biographer and going out to dinner.
Mr Walshe said he did not know why Ms Nixon had told the commission that she felt able to leave emergency headquarters at 6pm partly because she knew Mr Walshe was coming in about 7pm.
…
He had previously told the commission that he left home about 7pm to go to police headquarters. He admitted yesterday that this was closer to 8pm because he was delayed making personal phone calls.
Let’s get this straight. Christine Nixon left the IECC at 6pm to get ready for dinner at 7pm. She assumed that her deputy would be on at 7pm, but he did not arrive until 8pm!
No one was in direct control for two hours! They each thought the other was doing that role!
Not only that, both people thought it more important to attend to personal matters on the day, even with the knowledge of the disaster unfolding before them!
