By Allon Lee
SUNSHINE pool campaigner John Hedditch has accused Brimbank councillor Ian Douglas of waging a 12-month campaign to have him sacked from his job at the Department of Human Services (DHS).
Mr Hedditch revealed last week that Cr Douglas had complained to the Victorian Ombudsman in October 2004 and early 2005, alleging that Mr Hedditch had inappropriately used its resources to harass and bully the councillor.
“The basis of Mr. Douglas’ complaint to my employer was that I was waging a political campaign against him using DHS resources — a mobile phone, email account and computing resources,” Mr Hedditch said in a statement.
DHS investigated Cr Douglas’ claims and cleared Mr Hedditch both times, the latest in September.
“We have a code of conduct that you have a right to do minor amounts of private work using work resources,” Mr Hedditch told Star.
“Even though I have used the DHS resources occasionally, it has been minor.”
The report also stated that Mr Hedditch had informed his manager of his activities and had reimbursed the department for his personal phone costs.
Star received a copy of the September DHS report from Mr Hedditch.
“Mr Ian Douglas made three separate complaints about me to firstly the Ombudsman and then my employer (DHS), resulting in a major, year-long intrusion into my personal and working life,” Mr Hedditch said.
“His efforts to quieten legitimate community criticism by a private citizen set a dangerous precedent, was a major waste of taxpayers’ money and needs to be exposed, as it should never be allowed to happen to a private citizen again,” Mr Hedditch wrote.
But Cr Douglas told Star he was unrepentant and had recently contacted the Ombudsman to review the DHS report.
“They haven’t cleared him. (DHS) have accepted that he has used DHS resources and had authorisation to do it,” he claimed.
“Is that all right to use public assets? He is a public servant. So it’s all right for him to inappropriately use government facilities?”
He questioned whether the DHS was “protecting its own”.
“I have been against the inappropriate use of government resources over the 20 years I have worked in the public sector,” Cr Douglas said.
He called himself “a whistleblower” and labelled Mr Hedditch a “trained terrorist”.
“He is very highly skilled and trained in the way he does his business of influencing process. So he is actually a trained terrorist, so to speak, in that business,” he said.
Cr Douglas also claimed Mr Hedditch verbally threatened him on numerous occasions using a DHS phone.
A DHS-appointed psychologist listened to a recording left on Cr Douglas’ answering machine by Mr Hedditch and, according to the report, the message could not be “construed as aggressive”.
Cr Douglas said the report found Mr Hedditch was in breach of his DHS contract because he was a public officer of Sunshine Community Pool Action Group and SunRRA.
But the report dismissed this breach as inconsequential because the ban on holding positions in external corporations was unknown by a lot of DHS employees.
“I have a concern of how many other activities Mr Hedditch is involved in on behalf of DHS that the government is not aware of,” said Cr Douglas, who asked why Mr Hedditch was raising the investigation juts before the local elections.
A DHS spokesperson dismissed Cr Douglas’ allegations that the investigation was flawed.
A spokesperson for the Ombudsman would not confirm if they had received a complaint from Cr Douglas about the DHS investigation.
