Nixon at hairdresser on Black Saturday

Former Victorian police chief Christine Nixon says she was at the hairdresser's and met with her biographer while the Black Saturday bushfire disaster unfolded last year.

Ms Nixon called an urgent news conference on Friday evening, sparking speculation
she would announce she was quitting as head of the bushfire reconstruction
authority.
She has faced intense criticism after revealing that, as the police chief
commissioner, she left the fire control centre to have a pub dinner on the evening
of Black Saturday.
But she remained defiant on Friday, saying she has never considered quitting her
reconstruction role and defending her actions on the day 173 people died in
Australia's worst bushfires.
"On the morning of February 7 at 9.30am I had a haircut, it was a recurring
appointment, one I could have cancelled. I believe I could carry out my duties as
well," she told reporters.
"I also had a private appointment (that afternoon) ... to meet with a person who had
been working with me on my biography.
"In hindsight I would have done things differently ... particularly, I would have
stayed at the (state emergency) centre that night."
Ms Nixon said whatever she did that day would not have changed the ultimate tragic
outcome.
"What I did on that day as chief commissioner will be judged ultimately by the royal
commission. They are the ones who will hear all the evidence and make a decision
when they report about whether or not my behaviours on that day were appropriate,"
she told reporters.
"Some people are continuing to pursue the nature of those personal appointments (on
Black Saturday)."
She was appointed as the head of the Victorian Bushfires Reconstruction and Recovery
Authority after she had stepped down as chief commissioner shortly after the fires.
Meanwhile, Victorian Premier John Brumby said he had urged Ms Nixon to delay
accepting a Foster's board appointment before the first anniversary of Black
Saturday.
Mr Brumby says he felt it was more appropriate for Ms Nixon to accept a paid
corporate role after the first anniversary of Australia's most devastating bushfires
had passed.
"She raised it with me. I suggested that she delay taking that position," he told
ABC Radio on Friday.
"I wanted it deferred until the new plans had been put in place and agreed across
the reconstruction areas."
Ms Nixon had been approached to take the board position with the brewer winemaker in
early 2010, he said.
At that point, Ms Nixon had not even completed half of her two-year government
contract as head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.
Foster's Group announced her board appointment on April 1.
Mr Brumby said he hoped 99 per cent of Ms Nixon's reconstruction efforts are
completed by the second anniversary of the February 7 2009 fires.
Bushfire survivors are now divided on their views of Ms Nixon, Victoria's chief
police commissioner at the time of the Black Saturday fires, after her contradictory
testimony before the Teague royal commission into the devastating bushfires.
She has admitted she spent three crucial hours, as the fires raged, at a pub over
dinner with friends and had no contact with emergency services during that time.
She kept her dinner reservation despite being told minutes earlier that the fires
would likely be devastating and kill people.
Ms Nixon has defended her actions, saying her management style is to always appoint
others into key roles and delegate responsibility, which she did during the fires.
Mr Brumby has maintained that despite some bushfire survivors being furious at the
revelations, Ms Nixon will not be sacked from her role as chair of the Victorian
Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA).
"I acknowledge there is strongly held views in the community but I think the work of
the authority, the work that she does, is too important at this stage," he said on
Friday.
"I've supported her continuing in her role despite the fact she made an error of
judgment last year."