Victoria’s former police chief Christine Nixon is under intense pressure over her account of the events on Black Saturday.

On Wednesday Ms Nixon admitted she gave evidence to the Bushfires Royal Commission that was not true.

Ms Nixon previously claimed she did not have any conversations with Victorian Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron as the disaster unfolded, but phone records reveal she spoke to him three times.

There were two big issues the lawyers assisting the commission examined Ms Nixon on this time; why had she gone out for a pub dinner on Black Saturday in the first place, and had she deliberately covered it up by failing to mention it in her evidence to the commission last week?

Counsel assisting the commission, Rachel Doyle SC, went straight to the point, asking Ms Nixon where she went when she left the Incident Control Centre (ICC) at 6:00pm on Black Saturday.

Ms Nixon’s voice sounded shaky as she confirmed she went home, then went out for dinner with her husband and two friends about 7:00pm.

She did not recollect drinking any alcohol, just soda lime and bitters.

Ms Doyle was unimpressed.

“You gave evidence on the last occasion… that your state of mind when you left the ICC at 6:00pm was that we were facing a disaster,” she said.

“I did,” Ms Nixon replied.

“In those circumstances, why did you not cancel your dinner plans and ensure that you were able to be monitoring radio, internet, et cetera in a more active fashion?” Ms Doyle asked.

“I knew that if the members of Victoria Police, or any other agency really, who also have my telephone numbers needed me, or there was something that I could have done, then they would have made contact with me,” Ms Nixon replied.

Ms Doyle then asked Ms Nixon if she had forgotten that she had went to the pub.

“I didn’t think it was relevant, and what I understood I was being asked about was my role as the police commissioner and the other two responsibilities I had on the day,” Ms Nixon said.

“Whether I had a meal at home and prepared it myself, or whether I had a meal otherwise, I didn’t see as being important.”

Ms Nixon grew increasingly frustrated as she was repeatedly pressed on whether she had deliberately misled the commission.

“Counsel, that’s just flippant. Clearly that’s not the case. I believe that me having a meal was in fact not relevant,” Ms Nixon said.

“I said I’d had a meal when I spoke to you. I didn’t put it in the statement but I said I’d had a meal when you asked me.

“I in fact was available. I had good people in place to do the job. In no way am I disrespectful of this commission’s work – I think it’s been an outstanding work.”

Phone records

After last week’s evidence, the commission obtained Ms Nixon’s phone records and they revealed that more of her evidence was wrong.

She had told the commission she was in her office between about 1:30pm and 3:00pm but did not receive any updates on the fires breaking out.

But Ms Doyle poked holes in that statement on Wednesday.

“When you gave evidence Ms Nixon, you didn’t say you couldn’t recall whether you’d received an update, you said you didn’t receive any. And in fact I asked you whether it was surprising that no-one had notified you about important events in that window of time. You said you would have expected to have been contacted,” Ms Doyle said.

“Well, clearly I was trying to respond to you in the best way that I could at the time, for what I believed at that period of time,” Ms Nixon replied.

Ms Doyle was particularly interested in the lack of calls around the time the former chief commissioner was out for dinner.

“Can I suggest to you the gap of three hours in any contact made to you between 6:00pm and 9:00pm suggests a real possibility that your phone was off?” Ms Doyle said.

“I have absolutely no belief at all that my phone was off. The notion of me turning my phone off, I think, is a disgrace,” Ms Nixon said.

“I have never absolved myself of responsibility. The idea that I would have turned my phone off when I knew it was a difficult situation and I knew people might need me to do something, because if Assistant Commissioner [Stephen] Fontana couldn’t have done that role or needed some assistance, he knew where I was and would have made contact with me and he would have felt very comfortable to do that.

“The idea that I would have turned my phone off I find abhorrent.”

And whereas last week Ms Nixon said she did not speak to Mr Cameron on Black Saturday, on Wednesday the records revealed she spoke with him three times.

“One of the things about Minister Cameron is that he does often call and sometimes I can recall and sometimes I can’t,” Ms Nixon said.

“When you gave evidence on the 6th I asked you whether you called him at all. You said no. I asked you whether he called you. You said no,” Ms Doyle said.

“And since then I have obviously had my memory refreshed,” Ms Nixon said.

“When he called you, can you recall this? Did he give you any advice or instruction?” Ms Doyle asked.

“If he had, I would have then conveyed that to Assistant Commissioner Fontana, but I don’t have any recall that he did,” Ms Nixon said.

The commission also heard that Ms Nixon had not spoken to her Deputy Commissioner, Kieran Walshe, during the day as she maintained last week.

There is no word as yet on if and when Mr Cameron will be called before the commission to explain his oversight of the Black Saturday emergency.

After Wednesday’s evidence the Victorian Opposition has renewed its calls for Ms Nixon to be sacked from her role as chairwoman of the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.