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 their systemic lack of quality assurance processes. This was after a distinguished career of over 30 years working on the Great Barrier Reef and at the university.
With remarkable public support in this GoFundMe campaign, we raised legal funds to challenge the university and the Judge ruled that JCU had acted unlawfully on 28 counts and ruled that JCU should pay compensation of $1.2 million.
But now JCU has filed papers in court to appeal.
There are many important points of principle that we must fight for.
· An academic should be able to make challenging statements about controversial subjects such as the Great Barrier Reef or climate change.
· A university should never stifle debate
· The university should not silence a local scientist whose work shows that the farmers of North Queensland Australia are not destroying the Great Barrier Reef. JCU has let down its local region.
· Universities must start to reflect a greater diversity of views.
On hearing that JCU was appealing, Cheryl and I seriously considered just walking away. After all, why should I ask donors for $1.5M to fight a pointless battle that the State or Federal education ministers could settle with a phone call to JCU. $1.5M is a crazy amount that could be used for much better things.
JCU will use its infinite financial resources – effectively government money – to appeal. They have hired three or four senior barristers, one of which we are told charges over $20K per day and between them must be over $40K per day.
Last week JCU also stayed the judgement and capped my access to the compensation for legal fees.
So I must very regretfully ask again for help. We need the best legal assistance to ensure a win. My fabulous legal team led by Stuart Wood AM QC has greatly discounted their costs so far. But appeals are horribly expensive and we need to be prepared to ultimately go to the High Court.
Your donation, great or small, will not just help me fund this essential battle, it will also send a powerful message to governments about what the public expect of our universities. It might well take a couple of months to reach the target.
It is a crazy world that we have to spend this much for legal costs, but this is a fight that we have to win because of the principles it represents.
I have little doubt that we will win.
Note: because the public already donated $260K to this fund for the original court case, the target is set to $1.760M ($260K plus $1.5M). Note this does not include the funds that Cheryl and I have contributed so far (about $200K). Any funds that might be left over will be donated for Science Quality Assurance purposes or to promote academic freedom.
Notice to Appeal https://platogbr.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/notice-of-appeal-jcu-v-ridd-stamped-1.pdf
HT/scarface and Roy M
Best of luck Peter . If this case had been the other way around and you were fighting to prove damage to the reef, it would be all over the news and the University would be vilified.
illegitimi non carborundum
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/09/05/dr-peter-ridd-wins-1-2-million-judgment-appeal-possible/#comment-2788135
I suggest that if JCU appeals, an ad campaign be launched to expose the misconduct of the administration, focused on stripping JCU of its alumni financial support.
If I were a grad of JCU, I’d never give them another dime in alumni donations – to date they have wasted about $2 million dollars on the truly vile oppression of Mr. Ridd, in blatant contravention of his rights to free speech and academic freedom. Those responsible should be fired for cause.
I’m sure some third party is covering their losses – otherwise, they would not do this.
This is as important as the Mann/Ball, Mann/Steyn matters.
You would think that JCU would hang it’s head in shame.
I would hope the Minister would get on the Phone and tell them that this comes out of their funding.
I also note that the wonderful Dr Jennifer Marohasy has been filming the GBR and has found the opposite to what this JCU crowd and others have supposedly found.
Could be compelling evidence?
Not just the university’s funding but the personal assets of the Vice- Chancellor and his cohorts.
Her cohorts: Sandra Harding. Evil with lipstick and a pretty face.
Paid AU$940,000 p/a IIRC.
I have donated.
Me too
They are not spending their own money. Sorry to correct Peter but this is not Government money it is TAX PAYERS money that these arrogant self serving SOBs want to throw around on disgustingly highly paid lawyers.
And, this is why it is so essential to have a strong, free, and apolitical press.
That is rapidly disappearing, as the poison of progressiveism has invaded journalism .
You can have the overwhelming truth and evidence and lose because either no-one will hear you, or if they do, believe you.
Doesn’t this show guilt on the university? To have lost, yet now they are willing to spend 20 thousand dollars per day on just one barrister…. The money the university is willing to spend is incredible, considering they have already lost one before…
It’s not their money.
Although the article suggests JCU is wasting “government money”, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stated:
“There is no such thing as public money. There is only taxpayers’ money.”
This reminds me of Oberlin’s actions against the Gibsons.
The university is so sure they are right that they will throw more and more money into the legal proceedings, all to preserve their social/environmental justice creds, facts be damned. It’s easier to spend someone else’s money than admit to themselves that they might have been wrong the entire time.
Mr Ridd: I wish I were in the position to help fund your case. I have rarely been as impressed with a persons quiet and dignified courage and integrity. In the court of what is real, true and worthy, you have and always will be a winner, and you have my complete respect.
??? I’m pretty sure only a court can stay a judgment. JCU shouldn’t be able to do that.
I’d guess that probably means that JCU went to court for “leave to appeal,” and were allowed it?
Donation made…Good luck…it’s so sad this has to tie up so much of your life but it’s a just-cause.
+1. I will ask my friends throw in what they can as well. If the target is not reached, will donate again.
It is time for the realists to support real science, and the freedom of scientific views to be expressed.
Peter, we wish you success and pledge our support.
Please post a link to the go fund me site you have set up.
It is posted at the top of the page.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/peter-ridd-legal-action-fund
Thanks. Sent him a coffee or two.
As in most countries, justice is for the rich.
Sad state of affairs inherited from London, which set the bad example.
Let Cook university cook their conscience and possibly their books, less Indian students will go to this kind of despicable CO2 madrassas.
In UK, criminal justice is funded by the state. It costs for litigation of course.
And there is nobody “richer” than government.
justice is for the rich.
======
The legal system exists to protect people with money from those without money,
I’m there on this round for a C note.
Best of luck mate.
PS… the climate scam has got to start hurting the scammers hard in the pocket book, or we’re all doomed. Money from their wallet is all they respond to. Their Shame and reputation… they tossed under the bus years ago.
Likewise… Tossed a Ben Franklin into the pot.
Stand firm, Dr. Ridd!
It was $100 AUD, Ben Franklin is not impressed. 🙂
So I must very regretfully ask again for help.
I suspect you’d regret not fighting it even more, and when you add in the regrets of all your supporters its no contest. My donation is already in.
whose work shows that the farmers of North Queensland Australia are not destroying the Great Barrier Reef.
Hope those farmers have their wallets out… Shame on them if they don’t.
Not since doctors decided that you could cure all manner of ailments by letting the blood out of people has science gone this far off the rails. The people on the front lines trying to right the ship pay a terrible personal toll in this fight. The rest of us are only out a few shekels. So no regrets Dr. Ridd….
I just made my donation. I wish I could have made the donation in USD; it wasn’t much but it will not be my last; I will be returning to work soon so I will have more financial freedom in a couple of months. I have bookmarked the page.
JCU is misappropriating taxpayer dollars. Not my taxpayer dollars but not the point. I hope they get all the pain the pain they deserve.
This whole idea that Coral Reefs were part of the original oceans and their existence has been stable through the planet’s life cycle; an active, “alive” and, changing planet seems ridiculous to me. Hasn’t the existence of the coral reefs waxed and waned over the eons and epochs? I thought the coral reefs were built from the carcasses of marine plants and animals. I thought the oceans came first and the biology came second. Perhaps I am wrong. For that matter, was it not the interaction of biology with the geology that gave us fossil fuels. Somehow the cart and horse; the chicken and egg; step 1 and step 2 have gotten mottled up and misaligned in the public consciousness and discourse.
To make the supposition that the biological lifeforms of any planet should not or cannot adjust or facilitate an adjustment through either their willful, unintended, or unknowable action is completely illogical. The climate is a continuum. It may or may not have continuity with its current biology from time to time; external factors have been know to break it for awhile; super-volcanoes have caused it to run amuck; biology scrubbed the atmosphere of some gases and added other gases. If the human species or its replacement becomes a Tech 1 or Tech 2 civilization what the hell will these morons do then? It is not also funny but, not in the fun way, that the ideological side claiming to be progressive is in fact the complete antithesis of progress. They are the ones championing for static conditions while the entire universe, around them, is changing; it is the universe’s status quo; change of everything all the time: again illogical.
How can they cap your access to legal fee compensation when they have no such cap?
More than happy to play my small part in getting not just justice but truth out to those that need to hear it.
“Thinks” I wonder what Greta would make of this if she knew about it?
James Bull
Go get the bastards.
Does the money for the appeal come from University budgets? Surely they can not expect the Govt to fund this appeal?
If the money IS coming from Uni budgets, what impact will that have on students there? Do these students know the principles involved-they should be concerned at the threats to research independence- and if not they should be concerned at the cuts coming their way when the uni loses.
In short, are the students fired up enough to fight for Peter Ridd so bringing down the system from inside?
tonyb
I am almost 100% sure the students would be very keen to see Prof Ridd burn at the stake as a denier. Sign of the times.
Considering that the taxpayer is being made to fund freedom of speech being crushed, this is no surprise whatsoever. Hopefully this is the end of the line and those that have wasted large amounts of JCU s credibility , reputation and money get the public ridicule and sacking they richly deserve.
Ironic perhaps that some Australian taxypayers are ending up funding both sides of this – one side through their taxes and the other side via donations.
Gov’t have a duty to spend taxes wisely. If memory serves, JCU lost comprehensively last time. It seems rash of them to try again, unless their plan is to use their financial muscle to crush the opposition. They probably doubt that there are enough people out there willing to stump up the funds this time. I hope they are proved wrong on this.
What an appalling insult the appeal statement by JCU is to Judge Vasta!
Good luck, and in memory of Robert Carter who was seriously affected by JCU.
I’d love to see Bob Carter cheering on Dr. Ridd.
How can a single university be so vindictive?
There’s money and egos at stake.
World Socialism is the objective. Evil is the means and will become the aim. .
Dr. Ridd is fighting the JCU where some employees are paid nearly AU$1m. I wish you all the best.
Given as much as I can. This is a vital world-wide fight against those, like JCU, that have set themselves to destroy the integrity of science and the right of free speech. Good luck, Peter.
Good wishes alone won’t win this fight. Donation sent as last time. Hope you get the support you need.
The appeal alleges so many errings, errors of construction, and failures on behalf of the primary judge that one could be forgiven for wondering if the primary Judge held any legal qualifications to begin with. The University and their Counsel appear to be immersed in an orgy of self affirming sanctimony considering themselves to be not only the final arbiters of all things scientific but also of all things jurisprudential as well. Their bluff needs to be called.
This appeal is outrageous. JCU clearly despises Judge Vasta as much as it despises Peter Ridd.
Reminds me of the sanctimony and arrogance of Oberlin College in their appeal.
“Only you’re going to need more than one lesson, Mr Kane. And you’re going to get more than one lesson.”
Happy to donate, but I would love to receive a bit more explanation of why an appeal costs are expected to be $1.5M when the original case cost was less than $500K. My uninformed assumption would be that an appeal would cost less than the original case. What makes it more expensive?
Thanks
Australian law, there is no justice here, just a legal system. And in that system the outcome is determined by the depth of your pockets.
Cardinal Pell is another victim of Aussie justice. Downunder the Law.
Lets not go there at WUWT as I have personal experience of the “Catholic Church” and people like Pell, Cardinal or not.
It is a logical fallacy to extend your personal experience in this way. Surely you don’t mean ‘people like Pell’, who you clearly don’t know, but rather people like the one(s) who you ‘experienced’. Let’s leave the guilt by association to the alarmists, who we can discredit using unemotional analysis.
Or maybe not.
So it would appear, judging from Australian law’s handling of the Murray Salby – MacQuarie university matter.
https://mlsxmq.wixsite.com/salby-macquarie/page-1f
Peter Ridd has my support. Let’s hope he gets a fairer shake.
Reading now about the Salby horror story. I am astonished. But I cannot call it unbelievable. Nowadays I can believe anything about corruption in universities, especially the Australian ones.
Just read this story. Shocking that people behave like this. And these people are running the departments…unbelievable.
+1
higher courts I think
My wife and I will donate to Peter’s Go Fund Me account.
We have previously donated to his case prior to the Trial before Vasta J.
This is not just a case about the views of Dr. Ridd on the Great Barrier Reef or coral bleaching or even about Climate Change although they arise here.
It is about the very nature of academic freedom and what Universities should stand for.
No academic should be dismissed for expressing his views on his area of expertise even were his views incorrect.
I recommend readers contribute even if only a small amount.
For the sake of scientists to be able to talk freely and to stop the bullying by JCU, I have made a small donation.
Good luck Peter
With regard to the comments by Peter Ridd about peer review here are a few details on one specific paper.
https://tambonthongchai.com/2018/05/06/consensus-science/
And just look how far that stat error has been taken in climate science
https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/09/21/boondoggle/
Chaamjamal
Those two papers look intriguing but are way above my pay grade. I don’t know if they have ever been discussed in full, either here or at Climate etc?
Can I suggest you post it in this sites ‘submit a story’ at the top of the page as its on the wrong thread at present
Alternatively Judith Curry and Nick Lewis have submitted several papers on climate sensitivity and might be interested. Her address can be found at the Climate etc site
tonyb
Thank you sir