Eighty-seven years of male dominance over the top police union job
in Victoria came to an end in early October. In a groundbreaking election,
the Police Association (Victoria) voted a woman into the office of
president for the first time since the union formed in 1917.
Senior Sergeant Janet Mitchell, a long-standing association executive
member, won the presidency with the support of the majority of her
male colleagues.
From her victory, she has concluded that the gender of association
office-holders might never have been the issue “we’ve always thought
it (was)”.
“I only got there because the majority of men voted for me,” she
says. “To me, that says a lot about our changing culture. It says
that people perhaps look at ability and experience - and (not) gender.”
Only one woman in Australia had ever ascended to the heights of a
police union presidency before Mitchell won office. Anne-Marie Murphy
took charge of the Northern Territory Police Association from 1993
to ‘94.
Mitchell’s elevation to the presidential post comes, by coincidence,
during the reign of Victoria’s first female police commissioner, Christine
Nixon. That means women now lead the way on either side of the state’s
police industrial divide - Nixon as the employer, and Mitchell as
the union boss.
But, neither adversaries such as Nixon, nor the weight of expectation
on her to perform as well as, or better than, her male predecessors,
fazes the new president. She knows she will have critics, who see
her as lacking the mental toughness of a president, or concerned only
with female members’ interests.
Mitchell, a 43-year-old
with a degree in sociology and a post-graduate diploma in history
(women’s studies), rejects such views. She recognizes that her detractors
will likely express them either because of her gender, or her history
of service to the Police Federation of Australia Women’s Advisory
Committee.
“There is always a group that may say that I would be centred around
women’s issues,” she concedes. “But my record speaks for itself. If
they knew my record in the executive, and the issues I’ve been aligned
with, they wouldn’t have that narrow view.
“The WAC outcomes are more well known, whereas the (lesser-known)
agenda items I’ve pushed for in our Victorian branch are for the benefit
of all members.”
Mitchell also points to her record to show just how able she is to
tough it out when talk turns to industrial combat. She fought from
the front line in her association’s celebrated battles with former
chief commissioner, Neil Comrie, and the then Kennett government in
the late 1990s.
The association - which brought a no-confidence vote against Comrie
in 1999 - had met government resistance and inaction by police management,
as it fought for increased numbers and resources.
Few industrial brawls were ever as bitter; and no other could ever
have given a new executive member, as Mitchell was then, a better
grounding in the cut and thrust of police unionism.
“We had to do some really difficult things as a union to stick up
for ourselves,” says Mitchell. “Sometimes I felt like I was doing
things in a public sphere that might have affected my career.
“But I knew I had colleagues on the executive who were also sticking
out their necks - and that’s what you do. If you’ve got everyone there,
and you’re working as a team, there’s your strength.”
These were, of course, valuable experiences with which Mitchell
moved up to the association’s top job in mid-October, after six years
as an executive member. Although she never served as a delegate, she
had always closely followed her union’s operations.
Even as a young clerk of the court, before she joined the Victoria
Police in 1984, she had taken a great interest in “unions and welfare”.
Perhaps her father, a former advocate for trade teachers in disciplinary
hearings, passed that interest on to her.
But, Mitchell - born, raised and educated in Glen Waverley - had
never known of his advocacy role until just recently.
Through her 20-year police career, she worked in inner Melbourne,
first as detective and, later, as a uniformed sergeant. Then, after
a few years in the Equity and Diversity Unit, she went to work as
an instructor in Victoria’s detective training school.
Before her last post, at the police academy as an instructor on a
sergeants’ course, Mitchell worked on a DNA strategic development
project and as staff officer to the assistant commissioner for education.
Her decision to seek an official place in her union came in 1998,
after she realized that, for some time, no woman had held office on
the association executive. After she ran for and won a position, however,
she was to endure a “baptism of fire”.
“I’d never sat around a union table before,” she says, “and when
I went to the first meeting, I was elected as an office-bearer. That
thrust me into the PFA.
“So, all of sudden, I’m in Tasmania with (police association presidents)
Leon Kemp (Tas), Peter Alexander (SA) and Greg O’Conner (NZ).
“I was just blown away by all of these fabulous, committed union
people. That really spurred me on. I just saw Leon and Peter Alexander
as statesmen in the police unions. They were great role models.”
So, with PFA president, Peter Alexander, and others as her examples,
what will be Mitchell’s leadership style, as she heads the nation’s
second-largest police union with its 10,000-plus members?
She insists she is not an autocrat, but rather a “negotiator/communicator”.
And, to her, good communication is “the crux of it all” for a union
president.
“I want to be a good facilitator at the executive meetings so they
flow more smoothly and become more productive, more efficient,” she
says.
“If I could aspire to be the type of president I’ve seen around the
PFA table, I’d be really happy. A lot of them are just excellent performers,
and have the respect of their members. I have picked up a lot from
those presidents (who make up the PFA board).”
Mitchell has prioritized some of her presidential goals, and, not
surprisingly, the first is to improve communications between her association
and its members. She intends to see them better informed of their
executive’s “day-to-day business”.
Another of her aims is to ensure that members at the coalface truly
drive the association agenda. To achieve that, she will encourage
delegates to be more active in meetings and the development of agenda
items for conferences.
And, naturally, Mitchell wants to see women more heavily involved
in the association - at the highest levels.
She suspects, however, that women often see competition for the top
posts as extremely tough, and so remain at lower levels.
“But,” she says, “it was the encouragement of men in the PFA that
made me think: ‘Well, maybe I can aspire to be president’.
“I hope that my being the president will encourage a lot of women
to get involved; that they won’t just see it (the association) as
a boys’ club. It is a place for women; and you can become a leader.”
