Victoria’s former police chief commissioner Ken Lay says he never felt he was held to account by government for keeping women and children safe during his policing career.
Lay, who spent 41 years in the force and retired this year, was pivotal in highlighting family violence during his time as chief commissioner.
But he told Victoria’s royal commission into family violence he was driven to make cultural changes by his predecessor as chief commissioner, Christine Nixon, and other senior women within the force, rather than by government and politicians.
“I just never felt truly accountable to government about making women and children safe,” Lay said. “It was more of an intuitive thing, driven from within the organisation, and some very strong women’s voices from within Victoria police.”
Lay chairs the Council of Australian Governments (Coag) advisory panel on reducing violence against women and children.
As commissioner, Lay proposed a strong, independent body that would sit above the police and other agencies responding to family violence to hold them to account.
“To me, the accountability stuff is so important. It drives the agencies to work together,” he said. “I’m deeply attracted to an index that says, ‘This is what you’ll deliver and if you’re not delivering it, why not?’ ”
The death of 11-year-old Luke Batty, who was killed by his father Greg Anderson, was an example of why such a body was needed, Lay said. The coroner, Ian Gray, handed down his findings into Luke’s death earlier this month, and Lay said that although Gray had done some “nice work” in picking apart what went wrong, the agencies involved needed to be driven to change.
He spoke of how heartened he was to have seen such a strong change in attitudes towards women among leaders inside and outside the police force.
It was significant that Malcolm Turnbull’s first policy announcement as prime minister was related to funding for family violence.
“That’s two steps forward, but a week later we get nonsense down at Geelong, from the mayor of Geelong who makes some statement ... It’s just enormously frustrating,” Lay said.
Lay was referring to the Geelong mayor, Darryn Lyons, who was widely criticised for wearing a T-shirt featuring an image of the singer Madonna hitchhiking naked while holding a sign with the slogan: “Gas, grass or ass, nobody rides for free.”
Lyons later wrote on Twitter that he had “no idea” the slogan might be seen as offensive.
“So while we can say yes, we’re moving forward, we can’t lose sight of the fact that many people in our community, including people in leadership positions, still don’t quite get this,” Lay said.
A second round of public hearings at the royal commission began this week, with experts from across the sector giving evidence before commissioner Justice Marcia Neave.
It is due to report to the Victorian government by March.
