Judge questions university’s handling of Peter Ridd concerns

The judge overseeing the case of a Queensland university professor who was fired for questioning his colleagues’ “untrustworthy” research has asked a simple question of the university regarding its handling of the situation, suggesting their response was childish.

THE judge overseeing the case of a James Cook University professor who was fired for questioning his colleagues’ “untrustworthy” research has asked why the university didn’t simply answer his questions.

Dr Peter Ridd was sacked from his job of 30 years with JCU last year after he publicly criticised the “lack of quality assurance” and “misleading and deficient” research being produced by the university and its affiliates in relation to the Great Barrier Reef.

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Dr Ridd was censured twice by the university — first for sending an email to a journalist suggesting questions he could send to Professor Terry Hughes about reef research and secondly for comments made on Sky News about his concerns the community couldn’t trust the university’s research findings because of a lack of “quality assurance”.

Former JCU climate scientist Peter Ridd, left, preparing with his legal team.

Federal Court judge Sal Vasta questioned lawyers for the university, asking why the institution didn’t simply respond to Dr Ridd’s questions and allegations instead of “leaving no stone unturned” to discipline him.

“Sure go censure him and have whatever disciplinary proceedings but what did they actually do about the complaints because that’s something that would show the bona fides of the University,” he said.

“I would have thought the affidavits of all these people from the university would have been resplendent with all of what they’ve done to prove these allegations have no substance whatsoever and that Dr Ridd was conducting some sort of vendetta that showed he had no respect for colleagues and for the university but I don’t see any of that.”

Former JCU climate scientist Peter Ridd leaving the Federal Court Brisbane, claims he was unfairly dismissed from his job with the university for publicly voicing his opinions on climate change. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Judge Vasta said he thought the university would have addressed the allegations to show “we’re not just trying to shut him up” and that it was not “an Orwellian institution that suppresses ideas”.

“But I’ve seen none of that,” he said.

“For very intelligent people at times they behave quite childishly.”

Dr Ridd was first censured in April 2016 after he contacted a journalist about his concerns “sensationalist” photos of the reef were being distributed by authorities including the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) which purported to show the reef dying in an area his research showed had “spectacular” coral.

He was again censured in November 2017 after he made comments about reef research on Sky News, saying he was sceptical of “emotionally attached” researchers warning the reef was in dire health because his research showed otherwise and that he believed the community could no longer trust scientific organisations including the AIMS and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

Prof Ridd was then sacked by the university in April last year over claims he had further violated the code of conduct.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Judge questions university’s handling of Peter Ridd concerns