HOW WESLEY CAME UNSTUCK

Wesley Central Mission's bid to open Victoria's first supervised
heroin injecting room died days before Melbourne City Council rejected
the idea on Tuesday night. While the rot set in last year, the fatal
blow came last week, when Wesley superintendent, the Reverend Tim
Langley, gave the green light to front-page coverage of the $500,000
room in the Herald Sun.

When the picture of Mr Langley - wearing a dog collar he bought
specifically for the photograph - hit the streets, Wesley's hopes hit
the wall. Health Minister John Thwaites, whose office had advised
against the move, was off-side, and so was the town hall. Any group
that was insensitive enough to push their bid for a "shooting gallery"
the day parliament was to consider injecting room legislation, would
not get the nod.

An incredulous Reverend Peter Gador-Whyte, Wesley's parish priest and
a member of the Wesley board, says the coverage was "the best way to
kill" the mission's plans. "It made no sense to me," he says. "The
board had no knowledge of it."

Neither, it seems, did Wesley's spin doctors, Shandwicks International
who, according to boss Mike Smith, opposed the coverage.

Just why Mr Langley ignored the advice and went ahead is not clear.
Wesley's managing director Judy Leitch says the mission makes its own
decisions. If that is so, then in this case at least, its judgment
must be questioned. Why pay a PR company an estimated $30,000 for
advice you do not use?

It is a question that can only be tackled in the half light of
Wesley's odd management style.

The mission is in crisis, and has been for some time. The board,
according to insiders, is split between Langley supporters and critics.

Board members complain that Mr Langley keeps them in the dark. Neither
the decision to appoint Shandwicks, nor the sanctioning of the Herald
Sun photograph, went to the board. Mr Gador-Whyte and other insiders
say Wesley's drug initiative has been run by Mr Langley and David
Stanley, an advertising man who is chairman of the mission's drug
advisory committee.

The committee, according to Mr Gador-Whyte, at one stage also included
Herald-Sun journalist Glenn Mitchell, who wrote the paper's front page
injecting room story last week.

Mr Gador-Whyte said he was disturbed by management's decision to
engage Shandwicks, a "spin doctor" that was "not appropriate" for a
church worried about drug use.

According to Wesley's former PR manager, Sue Parks, the hiring of
Shandwicks was driven by Mr Stanley. Ms Parks resigned late last year
after questioning the Wesley leadership.

The same seems likely to happen with the mission media manager,
Colleen Coghlan, whose advice has been overridden by Mr Langley and Mr
Stanley.

She, along with the two staff closest to heroin users, nurse Jo
Beckett and project officer Bernie Durkin, have fallen out with
management, even though, according to Mr Gador-Whyte, "all are very
fine professionals who have done excellent work".

The internal politics is so heated that accusations of deceit and
distrust have been aired. Asked about this, Ms Leitch said: "I've
heard the allegation that Tim lied to a member of staff, and one
person has raised the question of trust. They are outrageous
allegations and they are not true."

She would not comment on a reported threat against a staffer. The
staffer in question was more worried about drug users on site, whom
she says are now panicking that they will now have nowhere to go.

As the cost of the injecting room debacle becomes clearer, with
suggestions that Wesley could see its funding cut, a board member,
Reverend John Rickard, said the Uniting Church would take a closer
interest in the mission.

"The church will come alongside Wesley to examine the processes," he
said. "We'll work with Wesley to see what the future holds."