GOAL MET! THANKS TO EVERYONE, see the update from Peter Ridd here. See UPDATE below: JCU, feeling some blowback, issues a press release on a Sunday.
WUWT readers may recall that WUWT spearheaded an effort to help Ridd’s legal fund, earning nearly $100,000 in donations in two days. According to Ridd, in an email to me:
They gave me a set of new allegations a few days after the successful gofundme campaign in February and we have been fighting them ever since. They really hated that gofundme campaign as one would expect.
Ridd wrote then:
I am astonished, very relieved and most importantly incredibly grateful for the support. I would also particularly like to thank Anthony, Jennifer Marohasy, Jo Nova, Willie Soon, Benny Peiser and many others for getting the issue up on blogs and spreading the word.
Here are the latest details, Ridd says in an email:
With the assistance from the Institute of Public Affairs we have appointed a Queens Counsel lawyer (absolute top gun lawyer in the British/Australian system) and we are still confident that we will win the case. Firing me has merely doubled the bet.
He posted this on his GoFundMe page early this morning:
Just an update of my battle
On 2 May, 2018, I received a letter from James Cook University (JCU) terminating my employment. JCU have sacked me because I dared to fight the university and speak the truth about science and the Great Barrier Reef.
Shortly after I went public with the GoFundMe campaign to which you donated in February the university presented me with a further set of misconduct allegations, which alleged that I acted inappropriately by talking about the case and have now ended my employment.
I will be fighting their employment termination, alongside the original 25 charges behind JCU’s ‘final censure’ last year.
As a consequence of the sacking, and the new misconduct allegations, my legal costs have substantially increased. JCU appears to be willing to spend their near unlimited legal resources fighting me. In the name of honesty and truth in science, we must fight back. We have an excellent legal team and are confident that we can win the legal case.
I feel extremely indebted to all those who have given so generously. I was blown away by the number of people who supported me, and I had hoped that more funding would not be necessary. Sadly, however circumstances have changed.
I have contributed another $15000 of my own money, in addition to the $24000k I have already spent. However, based on the growing complexity of the case, we will need to raise an additional $159000. It is a bit frightening, but we have reopened the GoFundMe site to receive more donations.
You have already contributed generously so all I ask of you is to help spread the word to expand the number of people who are helping.
I know there were many who were unable to donate the first time – including my own Mum – due to the speed we reached the original target of $95K.
For additional background on all the new allegations from JCU, I have uploaded all the documentation so that you can judge JCU’s allegations for yourself if you wish. https://platogbr.wordpress.com/fired-details/
In summary, JCU (1) objects to my criticism of the earlier allegations; (2) criticised my involvement with the Institute of Public Affairs; and (3) objects to me not remaining silent. The facts of the matter are simple: (1) the earlier allegations were an unreasonable infringement on my academic freedom, I was well within my rights to criticise JCU; (2) I have never been paid by the IPA, other than some initial support for my legal case and reimbursement for flights and hotels related to speaking arrangements which is normal academic practice; and (3) I am well within my rights, as stated by my employment agreement, to speak publicly about disciplinary proceedings.
Thanks, Peter
Jennifer Marohasy says on her web page:
BACK in 2016, when I asked Peter Ridd if he would write a chapter for the book I was editing I could not possibly have envisaged it would contribute to the end of his thirty-year career as a university professor.
Since Peter was fired on 2 May 2018, James Cook University has attempted to remove all trace of this association: scrubbing him completely from their website.
But facts don’t cease to exist because they are removed from a website. The university has never challenged the veracity of Peter’s legitimate claims about the quality of much of the reef science: science on which billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded research is being squandered. These issues are not going away.
Just yesterday (Friday 18 May), Peter lodged papers in the Australian Federal Court. He is going to fight for his job back!
If you care about the truth, science and academic freedom, please donate to help bring this important case to court.
It doesn’t matter how little or how much you donate. Just make sure you are a part of this important effort by donating to Peter’s GoFundMe campaign.
There is more information at my blog, and a chart showing how much some reef researchers have fudged the figures.
Thanks for caring.
Sincerely,
Dr Jennifer Marohasy
This action is seriously wrong, and the mark of a collection of cowards engaged in group-think. It sets precedent for the death of free speech, free ideas, and freedom to interpret science where the data leads you.
Because they are in the wrong, JCU will, in the end, be forced to capitulate. Let’s make them miserable using every legal method available. – Anthony
UPDATE: Feeling the Streisand effect in full force, JCU issues a rare Sunday press release:
https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2018/may/statement-about-peter-ridd
CLICK TO DONATE
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
As an Australian I am appalled that our universities should come to this and JCU is by no means the only one. My son has just started at uni as a mature age student after several years in the workforce. He has already figured out that he must not express certain ideas because that will automatically have him marked down. thankfully he is not at JCU which would be too much to take. Public money is used to fund these universities. They have an absolute responsibility to encourage academic freedom. How pathetic are the academics at JCU that they cannot construct an argument if they disagree with PEter Ridd. Instead they have to sack him. Losers!
The thought police are also out in force at American universities and colleges. And in state and federal government. Skeptical state meteorologists have been purged.
We all have to be hearing the alarm bells ringing when speaking the truth has dire consequences. The ability to derive an income is a person’s most valuable asset. To have it taken away for speaking the truth is disturbing.
At the Sydney Institute event with Dr Jennifer Marohasy and Professor Peter Ridd, a question was asked – which is more insidious-discrimination based on race or discrimination based on exercising freedom of scientific thought? Interesting that the question was not allowed-shot down, even though the questions were headed in this direction.
Bottom line- Australians MUST stop voting for political parties that allow this sort of VIOLATION of free speech. They must be punished for taking our freedom of speech.
As the CINO s (conservative in name only) have become effectively the same as the socialists in a 2 pp system where we are compelled to vote for one of 2 parties that are the same, we must become part of the poloitical process by joining the parties that have been infiltrated by traitors.
high treason
Take cold comfort, in that you are not alone. The UK is exactly the same these days.
Government policies are based on minority pressure group activities, undermining the premise of democracy.
We were told by our ‘conservative’ (Republican) party that new cars will all be EV’s in 2040 to appease the green minority pressure groups.
Fixed odds betting machines in bookies shops are to be reduced from a £100 maximum bet, to a £2 maximum bet. Many shops will close and many people made unemployed. This to appease a small group of liberal anti gambling campaigners, do-gooders by any other name. I will add that I don’t like gambling, but I’m not prepared to condemn anyone who does.
Smoking was deemed unacceptable, so it was dubbed anti social and priced beyond reach of many, namely, the poor. Again, liberal do-gooder pressure groups operating under the banner of ‘prevention is better than cure’ and the NHS. Consequence? The only thing that caused a mass change in smoking habits was vaping, guess what they’re going after now?
Booze is next, with a minimum pricing regime introduced in Scotland by the insane SNP, again, hurting no one but the poor. It”s coming to the rest of the UK soon, supported by minority groups who maintain the majority must be controlled, because of the drinking habits of a small minority.
Road safety campaigners had sleeping policemen (road humps) installed all over the country. They contribute nothing to road safety, but increase car damage, increase fuel consumption, restrict traffic flow and hinder emergency services. Thankfully, at least one London Borough has started ripping them up, but only because they increase atmospheric CO2 from cars slowing, and speeding up between them, another minority group influence.
Government funded charities, who wouldn’t exist without our taxes, are the new unelected QUANGO’s (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation), acting as pressure groups and lobbyist’s for the various initiatives governments want to see enacted……….for our own good!
By definition, I am a member of the far right, I support the UK Libertarian Party. It has nothing to do with violence nor liberal fascism often dubbed far right. It’s a small, but serious political party devoted to freedom of speech, the freedom to work, and the observance of criminal law.
Happy to donate again!
The reef salvation industry is predominantly a corrupt alliance of politicians, academics and Government ‘contractors’.
http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/opinion/great-barrier-reef-funding-a-positive-but-harebrained-wild-goose-chase/news-story/7298f6f4d57a7dcfd529b79528f7d0b3
THE ability of governments to exhibit breathtaking brain-deadedness is only matched by their ability to pluck money from nowhere – and only for projects that suit them.
The most recent virtue signalling attempts to appease activists are the $30 million Palm Island compensation payouts and the $500 million slush fund for the Great Barrier Reef.
At least with the Palm Island compo, the recipients have expressed begrudging gratitude and there is hope we can all move on.
But with the reef funding, the very people the Federal Government tried to appease have come out en masse in a display of ungrateful petulance worthy of a spoilt two-year-old.
World Wildlife Fund, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Stop Adani, and the Climate Council all turned up their noses.
They’ve trotted out completely unproven claims of human-caused climate change as the reason for their sulking.
They say the $500 million is nothing because it doesn’t address Australia’s paltry 1.3 per cent contribution to global emissions, which are causing climate change which caused recent bad coral bleaching.
It has already been shown that the bleaching occurred in two of the most severe El Nino weather patterns on record, and now that La Nina conditions are here, there hasn’t been another bleaching event.
This $500 million is a positive but some non-green sectors have also raised an eyebrow because the bulk of it will be used to address water quality issues, which is code for more vilifying, costs and restrictions on farmers.
“Brain-deadedness” – a word I picked up from my first editor – comes from politicians’ acting contrary to their own reports.
I’ve written multiple times about the 2015 Managing Water Quality in Great Barrier Reef Catchmentsreport by the Queensland Audit Office.
Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said the $500m will partly be used to kill crown of thorns starfish and address fertiliser run-off which causes COTS outbreaks.
But the 2015 report states there is no proof farm run-off causes this, it’s just a theory – a theory which doesn’t stack up when COTS outbreaks also occur off parts of Western Australia where there is no agriculture.
The report also admits that water quality targets imposed on farmers can’t be achieved, no matter how closely managed they are. Don’t politicians read their own reports? If they did, they’d realise this money could be put to far more practical ends.
North Queensland marine biologist Walter Starck has written extensively on the “reef grievance industry” and the need for scientists to constantly find threats to the Reef that, of course, need more funding to address.
On COTS, he writes: “Erratic population booms are inherent to the reproductive strategy of starfish and are well-known in various species all over the world. In the recovery process (after severe weather) the fast-growing branching and plate-like corals tend to overgrow the slower-growing more massive species. The preference of COTS for these faster-growing forms is probably important in the maintenance of coral diversity.”
The other way to look at it is that we’re spending millions to interfere with nature by killing predators of coral, but doing absolutely nothing to remove predators of people – ie crocodiles. Where are the animal activists protesting for COTS protection?
As for farms polluting the Reef, marine scientist Professor Peter Ridd says more water flushes the Reef from the Pacific every eight hours, than what reaches it from land in a year.
But scientists such as these who don’t jump on the gravy train, barely get a look-in for government funding and media attention, and they will be threatened with losing their jobs.
It should also be noted that the $500m is on top of the feds’ $2 billion “Reef 2050” plan. These are huge sums based on questionable science, and which aren’t appreciated by protesters. This is even more proof that activist groups simply cannot be paid off, because to stop protesting means they have no reason to exist.
It’s time governments adopted a “take it or leave it” attitude to activists rather than doubling down with more taxpayer money and hare-brained vegetation management schemes that penalise farmers, banning plastic bags, and renewable energy crusades that cost us a fortune.
“The reef salvation industry is predominantly a corrupt alliance”….it is 100% corrupt
Warren Blair
” … But with the reef funding, the very people the Federal Government tried to appease have come out en masse in a display of ungrateful petulance worthy of a spoilt two-year-old. World Wildlife Fund, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Stop Adani, and the Climate Council all turned up their noses. …”
—–
They are playing politics in a bidding war, i.e. they have this much in the bag, but they believe Labor will win next year at the Federal level, and they can lever much more money out of this yet, by playing off the Libs (who are just cynically pork-barrelling here anyway) against Labor.
There can be no doubt Bill Shorten will buy them off with over a billion $$$, if that’s what it takes. It’s not his money, who cares, if he becomes PM.
And the filthy suppuricating greenie.orgs know that.
The reef is just their prop for an endless misappropriation of public funding. Australia’s systen is rotten to the core, we are getting scammed for billions by these international organised criminal-gangs, parading around (in front of complicit sycophantic TV media) as those who caaaare, soooo much.
About how much money they can scam via BS about a perfectly healthy dynamic great barrier reef.
(and boneheads like Obunmer played into it too)
Done. Second donation.
More of the same, especially in the USRA (United Socialist Republic of Australia).
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/08/silencing-climate-change-dissenters/
Best of luck to Professor Peter Ridd. But he will need more than an expensive legal team if, like James Cook university and Macquarie university, Australian courts make up the rules as they go.
https://mlsxmq.wixsite.com/salby-macquarie/page-1f
At least Salby beat them where it counts – in the pocket.
Do you know what Salby is doing these days?
Another step down the road to ignorance by our universities. Unfortunately, this one is not as funny as the ANU (Australian National University) climate science brigade, claiming death threats which disappeared when officials went to look!
Maybe they were inverse Quantum death threats?
Be aware that it appears the GoFundMe is in $AUS which means for every $.75 US you get $1AUS so it’s a good deal 🙂 to boot!
$100 flung from the Great NorthWet. (It’s a long throw from here to AU!)
Here’s hoping Dr. Ridd can apply some legal ‘waddy wallops’ to the anti-science numbskulls at James Cook University!
Not only does Ridd need to get his job back but all those responsible for him losing it need to be dishonorably discharged from theirs and be publicly shamed.
This behaviour is par for the course. Another smaller issue running at the moment is that another staff member from JCU is fighting the organisation. He volunteered to assist in a reef mapping exercise and while doing so was severely bitten by a shark on the arm. He is up for some rather large medical bills, but as per JCU’s tender mercies, they have not assisted him because due to an internal review they decided he was a volunteer. They also have threatened legal action against him for him trying to get a freedom of information request on the original investigation. https://www.gofundme.com/bitten-by-shark
Small but done.
What a disgraceful organisation.
Voltron, not sure if I can contribute to the bitten by shark thing, but can you get a message to them? As a member of the academic staff at JCU some years ago, I was well aware of their arrogant disregard for WHS (Workplace Health and Safety) laws. Students working in the metallurgy laboratory, carrying crucibles of molten metal, no proper overalls, aprons, footwear. condensation dripping off the walls and ceiling. One drop in a crucible and someone could have been killed. They claimed they were not a workplace. If they threatened legal action over an FOI action then they haven’t changed, just got worse. I did an FOI against them for a mess they got one of my sons into. One document they produced was obviously forged , eg correction fluid marks all over it, unreadable signatures etc. The clerk at the magistrates court said it looked like something a five-year old would try. This might get picked up by moderators so I’ll save it elsewhere. You can contact me by clicking on my name above, or via my website tropicdesign.net.au
So JCU has taken a page from Stalin and ‘disappeared’ Dr Ridd? Seems to be a message there somewhere. So much for treasuring diversity of thought.
Seems odd…. apparently none of the social justice warrior, champions of scientific transparency, have donated funds??!
Kristi? Nick? ivanskinsman? benben? bellman? ???
https://youtu.be/f4zyjLyBp64
Front page story at the online The Australian newspaper this morning (paywalled) written by Graham Lloyd (Environmental Editor often writing on resource and climate issues).
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/marine-science-rebel-peter-ridd-sacked-by-james-cook-university/news-story/805ecb22cee6b4d34c5634799c1d5936
“Peter Ridd has been sacked by James Cook University for speaking to The Australian and breaking a gag order to expose disciplinary action being taken against him after he criticised the quality of Great Barrier Reef science.
He was also found to have broken an order that he “not directly or indirectly trivialise, satirise or parody the university” after he sent an email to a former student with the subject line “for your amusement”.
Suspending him from duty last month, JCU deputy vice-chancellor Tricia Brand said Professor Ridd had engaged in serious misconduct, including denigrating the university and its employees.
Terminating his employment, Vice-Chancellor Sandra Harding said he had “engaged in a pattern of conduct that misrepresents the nature and conduct of the disciplinary process through publications online and in the media”.
“You have repeatedly and knowingly breached your obligations to maintain the confidentiality of disciplinary processes,” Professor Harding wrote in a letter to Professor Ridd. “You have repeatedly and wilfully denigrated the university and your colleagues, and in doing so damaged the reputation of the university.”
In taking the decision to sack him, Professor Harding said she had not been influenced by Federal Court proceedings taken by Professor Ridd against JCU.
Professor Ridd responded by lodging new legal documents with the Federal Court. He said he would fight the sacking alongside 25 charges behind JCU’s “final censure” of him last year.
After already raising $100,000 from international donors in one day, Professor Ridd has turned again to the public for support.
“JCU appears to be willing to spend their near unlimited legal resources fighting me,” he said.
Professor Ridd claims he had been censured because he had “questioned the reliability of science coming from some of our most prestigious organisations who are claiming that the GBR is badly damaged”.
“All I am saying is we need to check this ‘science’,” he said.
JCU told Professor Ridd the allegations against him did not relate to academic freedom or free speech. “The university has made it clear to you that it is not concerned that you have expressed a scientific view that is different to the view of the university or its stakeholders.
“The allegations relate to your alleged conduct which appears to demonstrate disregard and disrespect for the university, for its employees, your co-workers and appears to be contrary to lawful and reasonable directions provided to you by the university.””
The Grand Inquisitors at James Cook Inquisition:
Deputy Vice Chancellor of Inquisition
I wouldn’t give two bob for a lot of so-called professors in Australian universities these days. Recently I was attempting to communicate with an alleged professor of education. Her abject inability to read and respond to what I’d written (rather than what I hadn’t written) led me to the sorry conclusion that she was functionally illiterate.
$50 here.
Glad to donate. Academic totalitarianism is a travesty that must be fought!
Gladly donated…again. The Thought Police must be fought while we still can…
“From The Age of Big Brother”
From the Age of the Thought Police
From a Dead Man………Greetings.”
I don’t think he got fired for his views. He got fired for his lack of collegiality towards people in his own dept, critiquing them with hearsay rather than proper scientistic data, and doing it in newspapers rather than the literature and meetings where this stuff is usually fought out. Sounds like a real jerk.
scientistic? ha ha
Doh! How did we miss it? The lack of proper scientistic data, that’s what was missing! It explains EVERYTHING!
/sarc <= for the humor impaired.
Universities usually do not fire people for being jerks. That would leave them with such a diminished staff that half the classes would have to be cancelled.
Not so. When your activities diminishes your academic duties and those of your colleagues you will get fired.
Sounds more like the university received both political and economic pressure to fire him.
I’m sorry, mate, but collegiality runs a distant second to truth and justice.
Not in politics.
Yeah ! REALLY ANONYMOUS + REALLY GUTLESS + Almost ILLITERATE !
Would John Forbes Nash ever had his Nobel Prize (a real one) if he had been judged on ‘collegiality’?
I’m in again too. Let’s hope that this time JCU have bitten off more than they can chew.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.!!! ” – Mark Twain
==========
Unfortunately all I can offer is encouragement, and a bit of experience.
Do your homework, lawyers know the law, not the technical details that might win the case.
It’s what the endless bucket of funds allows JCU to do and is primarily the modus operandi of all warmist organisations these days – unfounded and unproven shotgun allegations to wear down one’s opponent.
In for $50. For academic freedom and integrity.
Just sent another $20.00 to the cause. Good luck!
I raise to $100 and challenge you.
Hugs, I am sure people are donating as much as they can afford.
I’m sure they are! And they’re doing it! Absolutely great!
Well, I can’t speak for “the people”, but certainly I could have donated more. I didn’t because there was no need. It was crystal clear to me that the goal would be reached with or without my contribution. I just wanted to be part of it.
I wish Professor Ridd godspeed and a quick and successful resolution to his case.
I know that crocodile Dundee is revered in Oz – but this is going a bit too far…First Bob Carter and now…
?w=640
Kleinefeldmaus on May 18, 2018 at 10:09 pm
“I know that crocodile Dundee is revered in Oz”
—-
No so much, it was a real stinker, I was hoping Hogan would do a reprise to, “The Adventures of Barry McKenzie”, with the opportunity, but in LA. No such luck, it was as lame as can be—so parody away.
It’s one of those “so bad it’s good” flicks for a lot of us in the States.
The new fascists in full flight. I will contribute.