Domain names with the government e-mail address of a manager within Tasmania’s Health Department as the contact for advice, were changed after Tasmanian Times raised the matter last week.
Brian Stokes, Information Manager Mental Health Services, owns some 70 domain names and is associated with many more. Until Friday morning, the e-mail address listed for administrative and technical support was:
Tasmanian Times rang Mr Stokes on Thursday (29/10/09) and asked why this e-mail address was linked to his sites, but he was in a meeting and said he would ring back. He rang on Friday morning (30/10/09) and said his e-mail address was not associated with any domains. And he said he had formal, written approval under the State Service Act to run his own business in his own time.
Mr Stokes asked if we could identify any domain with his public service e-mail address and we gave him two examples: minibushiretasmania.com and Site2Work.com
Mr Stokes said he said might have inadvertently made a mistake and linked some domains to his work e-mail address.
“Are you trying to blackmail me,” he asked. “You be very, very careful. If you print my name and one word that is incorrect, I will talk to my lawyer.”
Tasmanian Times does not wish to blackmail Mr Stokes.
The issue came to light over a friend’s need to hire a minibus and we logged on to a site last Thursday (29/10/09) called minibushiretasmania.com
We checked it out on whois.domaintools.com
The registrant for minibushhiretasmania was Brian Stokes. Mr Stokes created the domain on 25th July 2006 and was named as the contact for administrative and technical advice, with a street address, mobile telephone number and his DHHS e-mail address, all listed.
Tasmanian Times went to the street address – 92 Harrington St, Hobart 7000. It was that of a car rental firm, Rent For Less. It is also listed as the address for four other rental companies, including Minibushire Tasmania. We asked to speak to Mr Stokes. The young man at the counter didn’t know him. He asked someone elsewhere in the building and when he returned said Mr Stokes “does some consulting for us” but not on the premises.
On Friday morning (30/10/09), Mr Stokes said he was not connected with 92 Harrington St, that his address was Dulcot. We checked minibushiretasmania.com and found the address was listed as Dulcott. There was no e-mail address.
On Thursday , Site2Work.com was listed at 92 Harrington St, with Mr Stokes’ DHHS e-mail address. On Friday, the Harrington St address remained but the e-mail address has been removed. On Sunday, there was no reference to Mr Stokes at all.
Thursday:
Friday (30/10/09):
Registrant:
Brian Stokes
92 Harrington St
Hobart, Tasmania 7000
Australia
Administrative Contact:
Stokes, Brian
92 Harrington St
Hobart, Tasmania 7000
Australia
418123480
Technical Contact:
Stokes, Brian
92 Harrington St
Hobart, Tasmania 7000
Australia
418123480
Sunday (1/11/09):
Tasmanian Times looked at the Domains by Proxy website, which shows that the company can substitute its name for individual names and contact details, as shown by the excerpt below, and can forward e- mails to a privately specified e-mail address.
Last week, whois.domaintools.com stated that Mr Stokes owned about 70 domains and his e-mail address at the Health Department was association with about 127 domains. Mr Stokes told Tasmanian Times that he was associated with more than this.
“I do it all in personal time,” Mr Stokes said. “My job is way too busy.”
His DHHS boss, Mental Health Services chief executive office John Crawshaw commended his work in the creation of a new database for the the Mental Health Service Helpline, in a July newsletter:
Development of the new database has involved a partnership between Helpline staff John Fahey and Mark Kuhn and Mental Health Services State Office, TMD (the telecommunications arm of government)
and XVT, the private programming company who constructed the database. The process has been ably co-ordinated by Brian Stokes, Manager Information, MHSS State Office.
