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A Victory for Free Speech and Free Inquiry in Climate Science

Peter Ridd update: James Cook University wasted $630,000 defending the Bureaucrat Rulers of Science, and plans to appeal


The battle continues for Peter Ridd.
James Cook Uni lost every single point against Peter Ridd. Today at the penalty hearing we find out they plan to appeal.
The fake fish uni has learnt nothing:

Charlie Peel, The Australian
James Cook University risks contempt rap for response to verdict
James Cook University is poised to appeal against the Federal Court finding that its sacking of physics professor Peter Ridd was unlawful.
JCU’s response was so far from the mark, apparently Justice Vasta is considering whether to refer it to the Federal Court Marshall. Vasta said the statement attributed to Chris Cocklin of JCU was “almost contemptuous”.
The IPA, bless them, filed an FOI to find out how much money was burnt in the quest, and says it’s high time JCU stops:
Gideon Rozner: The details of a freedom of information request lodged by the Institute of Public Affairs with James Cook University and released today reveal the University has already spent at least $630,000 on legal fees in the Dr Peter Ridd case.
“The very fact that an Australian university is willing to force the weight of an entire administration backed by taxpayer funds to stifle an academic’s freedom of speech sends a massive chilling effect to any academic engaging in public debate in Australia,” said IPA Director of Policy, Gideon Rozner.
“James Cook University’s shameful actions prove without doubt there is a crisis of free speech at Australian Universities.
“It is staggering to think that after the Federal Circuit Court ruled on every point in Dr Ridd’s favour, JCU is contemplating an appeal.
“Australian universities receive billions of dollars in taxpayer funding for the purpose of free intellectual inquiry. Now JCU wants to go to a higher court to prove it can shut down the freedom of speech on academic issue by one of its professors. It is outrageous. Taxpayers fund JCU to do education and research, not engage in vexatious litigation against its own staff.

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[h=1]Dr. Peter Ridd wins $1.2 million judgment – appeal possible[/h][FONT=&quot]Dr. Peter Ridd sens this update via email: The court just announced that we have been awarded around $1.2 million (provisional on submissions). This case was always about academic freedom.It was a fight that should never have started in the first place. I have worked for 35 years on the Great Barrier Reef, and my…
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JCU doubling down on failure.

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[h=1]Peter Ridd case Appealed by James Cook University.[/h][FONT=&quot]Peter Ridd Action Fund is here. From the action fund page. JCU Appeals. We must fight again, and will need about $1.5M AUD to take this as far as the High Court if necessary. Last year I was fired by James Cook University after saying that Great Barrier Reef science institutions were untrustworthy due to…
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Busted: Reef fish aren’t bothered by “acidification” and James Cook Uni isn’t bothered by potential fraud.


“Clark et al. (2020) found 100% replication failure. None of the findings of the original eight studies were found to be correct.”
Scientists tried to repeat eight experiments that showed “acidification” would make reef fish get hyper, act like their predators smell nice, and generally swim in the wrong circles, behave weirdly and need therapy sessions. Turns out the fish will be OK, but James Cook Uni’s reputation may never recover. The original junk experiments and press releases came out of the coral reef centre at JCU.
This is the “replication crisis” Peter Ridd warned us about. He was fired from JCU in 2018 after stating that work from JCU’s coral reef centre (ARCCoE) was not trustworthy. He also helped expose manipulated photos of reef fish. Obviously this latest reef research shows he was right to be concerned about quality assurance at JCU. One JCU researcher, Oona Lönnstedt, had already been caught fabricating data in Sweden, and yet JCU “investigated” and sacked Ridd faster than it investigated her suspicious lionfish shots. Indeed, two years on, JCU has not even officially appointed the committee to investigate her potentially fraudulent work. It seems JCU would rather employ untrustworthy scientists than honest ones.
Ridd won on every count in court against JCU last year, but they still want to waste millions in the high court defending their right to exile and punish a whistleblower for being non-collegial and writing a slightly satirical subject line: “for your amusement”. This unpermitted behaviour is seemingly so much more important to JCU managers than employing people who do honest, useful scientific work. And who cares about the stupid fish and the fate of the dumb reef anyhow? They are just a fund-raising tool for a grants machine. I guess JCU can’t maintain the abject fear among their staff, and get obedience to their own agenda if the dang staff say what they really think.
Think about how pointless the JCU appeal is — even if they were to win, they lose — they prove that they are not the kind of institute taxpayers should be funding.
JCU management have learnt nothing. Since losing the case JCU has changed its employment contracts, not to give their academics the unequivocal right to speak freely, but to make sure they can’t. Enough is enough — all universities need to guarantee free speech in employment contracts or no more government funds.
Every JCU employee’s work is tainted by this. Even the honest ones. We will never know what any JCU researchers really believe, or which results were filed in the bin, no matter what they say, because we know employees of JCU have to hide unfashionable opinions. Their quality assurance is terminally flawed. This makes the entire institution useless as a research body, and with standards so low, also useless for teaching. The government could fix this entire embarrassing debacle in five minutes. They just need to withhold JCU funding til the uni gets new management, investigates potential fraud, stops wasting funds in legal battles, and demonstrate that they support free speech — rehire Ridd, sack the VC Sandra Harding AO who earnt $975,000 in 2018, and enshrine free speech in employment contracts. It could all be fixed in time before the academic year starts.
Environmentalists should be defending Ridd. Junk science hurts the reef. The nation could waste money giving the fish counseling instead of solving actual issues that may threaten the reef.

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[h=2]Peter Ridd case: JCU appeals for their right to threaten and scare staff and ignore potential fraud[/h]
Today and tomorrow are the Appeal Days for James Cook University. They sacked Professor Peter Ridd for daring to say that some of our reef expert institutions “could not be trusted” then wasted $600,000 in court defending their work only to lose on every single count. James Cook Uni was ordered to pay $1.2m to Peter Ridd. Judge Vasta was scathing. Yet JCU barrelled on to waste more taxpayer money on an appeal.
Think about how pointless this JCU appeal is — even if they were to win the legal war, they lose the scientific, academic and educational one — they prove that they are not the kind of institute taxpayers should be funding.
Peter Ridd was JCU’s best asset until they sacked him. He helped expose manipulated photos of reef fish by a JCU researcher, Oona Lönnstedt, who had already been caught fabricating data in Sweden, and yet JCU “investigated” and sacked Ridd faster than it investigated her suspicious lionfish shots. Other JCU researchers claimed that “acidification” would make reef fish act strangely. But, Peter Ridd warned a lot of research could not be replicated, and so it was with the odd fish. In January a new paper tried to repeat eight JCU experiments and every one of them failed. Reef fish will be fine, but JCU’s reputation may never recover. . . .
 
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[h=1]Inside Peter Ridd’s fight for freedom of speech on climate change.[/h][FONT=&quot]A fantastic series from the Institute of public affairs. The Heretic is an insiders’ account of Peter Ridd’s ongoing legal battle with James Cook University. It tells the story of why Peter spoke out on the bad science surrounding climate change and the Great Barrier Reef, the extraordinary lengths that James Cook University went to…
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A defeat for academic freedom, but the struggle continues.

University Appeal Upheld, Peter Ridd Loses – We all Lose

July 22, 2020 By jennifer 38 Comments
On 2 May 2018, Professor Peter Ridd was sacked by James Cook University for serious misconduct. It all started when he called-out his colleague Terry Hughes for falsely claiming healthy inshore coral reefs were dead from climate change and … [Read more...]

In Comments:

Monckton of Brenchley says
July 23, 2020 at 6:10 am[FONT=&quot]In Commonwealth countries, there is a right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It is not a particularly expensive procedure. There is a very good chance that the Judicial Committee will overthrow the Federal Court.
Jennifer Mahorasy has done wonderful work supporting Peter Ridd and also showing that the Great Barrier Reef is in good heart, notwithstanding the propaganda to the contrary.
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[h=2]Ridd appeal: JCU spent a fortune to win the case and trash its own reputation[/h]
[h=4]Ridd loses: Federal Court rules that science is whatever the JCU Vice Chancellor says it is.[/h]JCU wins the appeal on all 17 points that Justice Vasta scathingly awarded to Peter Ridd.
If, hypothetically, fraud was happening at JCU and a staff member reported it, the Australian Federal Court decision has just declared that its fine for JCU to sack that whistleblower for being uncolliegiate.
As I said, this is a case so pointless that even if JCU wins, it loses. And it has spent a fortune to win the legal battle and prove that we cannot trust anything anyone says from JCU.
This win doesn’t just tarnish the VC and admin, it taints everyone who works there. No matter what any good academic says at JCU, the world will wonder what they didn’t say. We can’t know whether they would have preferred to say something else, but couldn’t out of fear that they will be sacked because the VC might not like it.
To recap Peter Ridds crimes: he said “for your amusement” in an email once. (Illegal satire). He said “ We can no longer rely on our science institutions.” He talked about the replication crisis in science, which was borne out in research, and he spotted duplicated photos that appear to be fraudulent by a JCU researcher who was separately was found guilty of fabricating data in Sweden.
After this ruling, nothing any academic at JCU says can be trusted. Are they censoring what they really think? Is JCU riddled with incompetence but the staff won’t dare say so because they are frightened to use their emails? Is the evidence fraudulent? Could be. JCU doesn’t care if it is. They only care if they look good. Unfortunately, they look terrible. JCU has spent a fortune defending the indefensible. . . .
 
[h=2]Peter Ridd will take it to the High Court[/h]
For Peter Ridd, it would have been so much easier if he had gone quietly. This battle is not for him, but for our Australian Universities. He shouldn’t need to take this to the High Court, or even the Federal Court. The Scott Morrison government could turn off the tap to every institution which won’t guarantee free speech and enshrine it in their employee declarations. Dan Tehan is reviewing the university model code, but they don’t need a review. They know, we know, everyone knows, without free speech our universities are just Big Government advertising agencies. Those funds could be frozen tonight, and watch how fast the universities can rewrite their contracts. At the speed of light…
From John Spooner, The Australian.
[h=3]Peter Ridd Seeks High Court Appeal[/h]Charlie Peel, The Australian
Sacked James Cook University professor Peter Ridd will go to the High Court over his controversial sacking for publicly criticising the institution and his colleagues over their climate change science.

A week after the Federal Circuit Court overturned an earlier court decision awarding him $1.2m, the marine physicist has confirmed the next front in his legal battle that has already cost more than $1m. Professor Ridd, who has personally spent $300,000 in his fight, has rallied his supporters in a fresh fundraising bid aimed at amassing $630,000 to bankroll his appeal to the highest court. . . .
 
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[h=1]Getting to the Truth: Who Cares? Perhaps the High Court[/h]July 29, 2020 By jennifer 2 Comments
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Many of us know that there is little to no quality assurance of much of the environmental science that comes out of universities across the Western world. Yet academics are the new demigods, revered by so many while often just making stuff-up to fit the zeitgeist. So many within the university system that have tried to speak-up have been silenced, and then sacked.
Peter Ridd ‘s much publicised sacking has shown some of the tactics routinely used. And he lost in the Federal Court last week.
But again, he is not giving-up. Now is your opportunity to support him in his push to show the injustice through a hearing at the High Court of Australia. You can donate here:
https://gf.me/u/x5frxt
Yes, Peter is appealing the decision of the Federal Court to the High Court of Australia. . . .
 
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[h=1]Academic Freedom VS JCU: Reef Scientist Peter Ridd Vows to Fight On[/h][FONT=&quot]Courageous Reef Scientist Peter Ridd needs your help. He plans to continue the battle against James Cook University, to protect the right of Australian professors to be uncollegial, their right to publicly criticise the work of other scientists. Ridd intends to appeal a court judgement which which suggests Academic Freedom as most people understand it is a “historical concept”.
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