Australian Prime Minister to launch memoirs of trailblazer Christine Nixon

Jumbo Editorial Team

The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has confirmed that she will launch former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon's controversial biography on August 3, adding that she didn't necessarily agree with all her views.

In her book, Fair Cop, Ms Nixon is reported to have lashed out at the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission, which she described as a kangaroo court, and complained that she was targeted unfairly in her job because of being overweight.

Ms Nixon was publicly criticised for her actions on Black Saturday when she left the state's emergency command centre on the evening of the bushfire crisis to have dinner with friends.

Prime Minister Gillard, displaying sporting spirit, described Ms Nixon as a trailblazer for women in policing and made the point that the debate surrounding the book was perfectly appropriate.

"Christine Nixon joined the NSW (New South Wales) police force in the early 1970s, and when she did less than 180 women had joined that police force since they allowed women to join in 1915," the Premier said.

She declared that her decision to launch the biography did not mean she agreed with everything Ms Nixon wrote.

"I have never read an autobiography or biography where I have picked it up and said every decision the person at the centre of the book has made was the right decision," Prime Minister Gillard said.

"I have never had that experience reading any book, I'm not having that experience reading Christine Nixon's book. The purpose of people writing a book is they put their version (of events), and of course it will be debated and considered by others and that's appropriate," she added.

With so much media attention worldwide even before it’s launch, Christine Nixon's biography seems certain to catch the imagination of the Australians in particular and the global audience in general.