Doug PollardWill a frost follow Nixon?
February 1st 2009 22:48
Christine Nixon enjoys a joke with Lucy Loosebox - pic by Daniel Sutton
When Christine Nixon marched in Pride 2002, she got the biggest cheer of the day. Criticism in the tabloid press and talkback radio, fanned by Saltshaker zealots and other extremist “Christians”, did not deter her.
The Herald Sun was predictably ‘outraged’ that she not only allowed her officers to march, in uniform and on full pay, but led the contingent herself.
“The people who asked me to join them in the Pride March have worked for the force and the community for up to 30 years,” she explained patiently.
“They are professional, dedicated, experienced and hard working officers who feel strongly about marching in uniform. They deserve a fair go. It was important to support the officers when asked”.
For those officers who had endured the slights of their traditionalist macho colleagues for all that time, it was heady stuff to know that the most senior officer on the force was prepared to openly stand by you.
She also signalled her support for the rainbow community in general, and, by implication, for all other minorities.
“Police involvement was an attempt to forge links with one of the under-represented groups in our cosmopolitan community. . .. I think people of the community really hope that we have overcome some of the prejudices that used to be there,” she told the tabloid.
Nixon understood that in order to police a diverse society, the force must reflect that diversity. People must be confident that there are officers on the force who share their heritage, background and experiences, and where they do not, they have at least some understanding of what it is like to be gay, lesbian, black, Asian or whatever.
This approach is not popular with the ‘hard men’ in the force, who despise what they see as a ‘soft’ approach. They see themselves as ‘defending society’, which they tend to define in rather narrow White Australian terms, and this has been reflected in Nixon’s many battles with the Police Association.
She appears to have had some success in changing the culture of Victoria Police. How much of it will survive her departure remains to be seen. Much hangs on the choice of her successor. Will they continue to promote and respect diversity, or will the thaw in relations with the gay community she promoted be succeeded by a frost?
The Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officers have come under threat in the past from senior officers who naively assume that if they don’t see lots of gay and lesbian related crime on their screens, they don’t need to spend resources on gay and lesbian related policing. Will her successor take such a simplistic approach?
Nixon herself has been criticised by some in our community for only marching the once. She took the view that she had made her point, and was not in the habit of repeating herself. The message was clear.
Now she marches again, at the end of her tenure, in a clear signal to those who will choose her successor that this is one achievement, at least, that she is proud of, and one they should not jeopardise with their choice.
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