I want to begin by thanking Melbourne University Publishing for making this event possible.
MUP has for decades played an extraordinary role in our national conversation.
You've given our country its greatest work of scholarship - the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
You've published works by distinguished writers such as Gore Vidal, Barry Jones, Don Watson, Paul Kelly and Stuart Macintyre.
And you've published controversial works, including the book the subject of today's launch.
And that is no surprise because Fair Cop canvasses some of the very deepest-seated issues in contemporary society:
The role of women.
The nature of policing.
Changing styles of leadership.
Our response to nature's cruelty.
Accountability in public life.
Any of these topics would be the subject of understandable discussion on their own.
To raise all of them in one volume has made controversy inevitable.
I am not here today to adjudicate that controversy.
Readers will be able to judge for themselves.
I am here because Christine Nixon is a high-achieving Australian whose long journey of public service deserves our attention and regard.
That journey begins in the first chapters of this book, which portray a rich and fascinating snapshot of life in postwar Australia.
The years when a sleepy and insular nation began to wake up to the realities and challenges of a changing world.
This book tells the story of a kid who grew up on Sydney's northern beaches in the house where her beloved parents Ross and Betty still live today.
Who enjoyed a childhood of “security and structure.”
Who acquired a strong sense of community in a close-knit, caring neighbourhood.
Who spent long summer days on the sands of Manly beach.
But who also saw the world changing around her in the late 60s and early 70s, and who wanted to understand and master that change.
Mum Betty was a Methodist church elder who conveyed a “formidable work ethic” (p.8) and whose expectations of her three children were “unapologetically high”. (p. 21)
Like my mother, Betty Nixon worked - which was uncommon in the 1950s and 60s but provided an invaluable role model for a smart, inquisitive daughter.
Christine's dad Ross was a police officer, just like both my parents were back in Wales.
Ross Nixon was a clean-skin - a so-called “white knight” in an era of deplorable corruption and brutality, who feared that his daughter's choice of a police career would bring her face to face with the “dark side”.
In fact, so uncertain was Ross that he insisted Christine gain a qualification in case policing didn't work out - which she did, obtaining a TAFE certificate.
And indeed, Christine and her two brothers all ended up earning Masters' degrees, proving the power of education to transform lives and unlock opportunity.
Perhaps the most defining moment came at the end of high school when Christine applied for a management trainee-ship at Coles but was knocked back because of her gender.
So policing it was.
In her NSW Police Academy class, there were just two women in a cohort of 70.
Predictably the new graduate was fobbed off on a series of light duties like visiting schools and directing traffic.
Not for the last time, Christine Nixon would have none of it.
She moved to mainstream policing, starting with the possibly roughest police station in Australia - Darlinghurst.
She found mentors among the ranks of the honest cops like the legendary Merv Beck and John Avery.
And she firmly and patiently rose over 30 years of hard work to the rank of Assistant Commissioner before moving to Victoria as Chief Commissioner in 2001.
Christine chose policing because she understood profoundly that no Australian can succeed if they live in the shadow of violence, crime and fear.
That policing must both serve the community and reflect it, rather than standing above or apart.
It was these insights that captured the attention of the selection panel for the chief commissionership in 2001.
When Premier Bracks announced her appointment, it was with these words:
“[Christine Nixon] was the stand-out candidate for her vision, her leadership and her views on modern policing, experience as a police officer and impeccable integrity”. (p.122)
From that day a remarkable series of challenges and events followed:
September 11 and the war on terror.
The fight against corruption.
The struggle for cultural change.
The gangland wars.
The 2006 Commonwealth Games.
There were the good days like seeing corrupt officers drummed out of the force or crime figures falling.
Or the bad days when you had to go and visit a widow whose husband had just been killed in the line of duty.
And, of course, there is that most infamous of days - Black Saturday - February 7, 2009.
A day Christine will reflect on for the rest of her life.
A day our nation has reflected on, including through the important work of the Royal Commission.
Friends,if this book has any theme that unifies its different stories and different chapters, it is leadership.
In Fair Cop, Christine muses at length on the changing leadership styles in policing, drawing on her reforming work in NSW under John Avery, her postgraduate studies at Harvard and her secondment with the Metropolitan Police in London.
Indeed, Christine notes that being a leader has been “the vocation at the core of [her] professional life and identity.” (p. ix)
Friends,among all the discussion and debate, let us remember this salient fact:
Christine Nixon has dedicated every phase of her adult life to the honourable calling of public service and leadership.
Her book is a vivid reminder that such leadership is the ultimate high-wire act - no hands, no safety net.
Few forms of leadership are harder than leading an organisation through change - be it cultural change, economic change, social change.
And, of course, no worthwhile change is ever straight-forward or simple.
The easy way is to pretend that an organisation - or indeed a nation - can make its way in a demanding world without the need for change.
That road is easy.
It is enticing.
And it is wrong.
There is no way that the old NSW or Victorian police forces could have justified staying the same.
Home to thousands of honest, dedicated officers whose work was at ever present risk of being overshadowed by instances of corruption, alcohol abuse and brutality.
In a modern and rapidly changing world an old-fashioned command-and-control culture which even the military had discarded, could not have remained untouched.
And again, just as Fair Cop is a record of this change, it is also a record of Christine's leadership.
Leadership was Christine's job for three decades from the day she got her sergeant's stripes.
That journey has included triumphs and mis-steps.
Memorable days and forgettable ones.
All on the public record to be judged by friend and foes alike.
As a sustained reflection on a lifetime of leadership, this book asks us only to understand and judge that record in its entirety.
To read each of these 366 pages.
Examine all her 40 years of public service.
See the whole person and the whole story:
Of the second-generation cop with policing in her veins.
The tough achiever who sought to be judged only on her merits.
The person of integrity who opposed corruption at every turn.
The reformer who sought to build an evidence-based model of policing grounded in our shared values as free citizens in a democratic society.
Whatever your standpoint, this book records the life of a significant Australian whose achievements - from the day she stepped into the Police Academy in 1972, to the day she left the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority last year, are worthy of attention and respect.
It is a life told frankly and fluently by its authors.
Thoughtfully edited by Cathy Smith.
And superbly published by Victory Press.
Controversial - certainly.
But indispensable for all who want to understand the recent history of our nation.
I declare Fair Cop, written by Christine Nixon in collaboration with Jo Chandler officially launched.