Just to bring you up to date on the wild and woolly world of university litigation, truly exhilarating stuff, like mountain climbing:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/james-cook-university-ordered-to-pay-peter-ridd-12m-for-unlawful-dismissal/news-story/a9a00f937b78d90520df00bccf78f94d?utm_source=The%20Australian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=TodaySHeadlines
“James Cook University has been ordered to pay reef scientist Peter Ridd $1.2 million for unlawfully dismissing him after he publicly criticised the institution’s climate change science. Federal Circuit Court Justice Salvatore Vasta on Friday handed down the penalty following hearings earlier this year. He ordered the Townsville university to pay Dr Ridd $1,094,214.47 as compensation for past and future economic loss because of the unlawful sacking, as well as general compensation for more than “three years of unfair treatment”. JCU will have to pay a further $125,000 as a way of penalty. The judge lambasted the university, saying it had “failed to respect (Dr Ridd’s) rights to intellectual freedom”. The physics professor, who specialised in marine environments and worked at JCU for 30 years, on Friday lamented the ugly affair, saying 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 genuinely held belief is that there are systemic quality assurance problems at Great Barrier Reef science institutions,” he said. “I had a right, a duty, to say this. “JCU have still not accepted this fundamental right despite the importance of the debate to the north Queensland region.”