Victoria's new police chief faced a grilling on his first day
Victoria's new chief police commissioner was just 17 when he donned his first uniform, and he still looked like he was in high school, he told a hall of recruits in Melbourne's south-east on Friday.
That proved a problem at first for 'conjuring authority on the streets' of New Zealand, but he would serve for more than 40 years, including eventually as the country's police commissioner.
On Friday, Mike Bush donned a new uniform as head of Victoria Police – drawn out of retirement and across the ditch by the Allan government to lead a force in turmoil after the departure of two chief commissioners and a deputy during a crime crisis.
While an eager press pack waited outside for Bush and Premier Jacinta Allan on his first day, the prickliest questions came from the police recruits. One asked whether police would receive upgraded technology. 'Heck yes!' was the answer.
Another young detective asked the question on most journalists' minds: how to juggle the pressures of 'what the government wants with what the boots-on-the-ground need'?
That answer was handled with more diplomatic flair – a glimpse of the man who has led multiple government agencies through crises, from the Christchurch terror attack to the Boxing Day tsunami, not to mention helming New Zealand's much-lauded COVID pandemic response.
Bush, already running late to visit two police stations, vowed to keep his ear close to the ground to hear what police need even as he remains close to the ear of government. That also meant asking hard questions of politicians, he added.
There will likely be plenty. Appointed by a government desperate for a win on law and order in the lead-up to next year's state election, Bush faces soaring crime rates, escalating youth gang violence and a tobacco war on the streets of Melbourne, along with recruitment problems, budgetary constraints and a slump in morale within the force itself.
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