Sacked professor Peter Ridd steps up push for reef science scrutiny


Marine science whistleblower Peter Ridd. Picture: Cameron Laird

• The Australian
• 12:00AM May 26, 2018
• GRAHAM LLOYD
  
  Environment editor
  Sydney
  

Marine science whistleblower Peter Ridd has stepped up his campaign for a new body to check the quality of Great Barrier Reef science to ensure that billions of dollars of public funding are well spent.
Professor Ridd said a quality assurance panel to audit research findings would cost a small fraction of the money already earmarked and would quickly achieve results.
Professor Ridd was sacked last month by James Cook University for breaking confidentiality agreements to disclose that disciplinary action was being taken against him following his public calls for better quality assurance.
JCU said Professor Ridd had engaged in serious misconduct, including denigrating the university and its employees.
He has raised $260,000 in public donations to challenge JCU in the Federal Court and has received wide support, including from federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg, who said academic freedom and the right to challenge what might be perceived as accepted wisdoms were essential in any free society.
Professor Ridd told The Weekend Australian he did not want to be involved directly in the quality assurance panel, which should truly be independent. “It has to be the right people,” he said.
He said the panel would operate like an audit body or formal peer review where independent scientists not employed directly by the group were paid to analyse the findings of keystone research papers.
“We are talking a few million dollars a year to get an awful long way,” he said. “In a few years you could have the bulk of the Great Barrier Reef science checked and it would tighten up everything that was coming out in the future.”
Professor Ridd said his motivation for better quality assurance was the so-called “replication crisis”, which was an open secret in the science community internationally. A series of major campaigns to replicate and check recent scientific results had shown consistently that about half were wrong.
Professor Ridd said spending 1 per cent of funds allocated to the GBR Foundation in the federal budget on quality assurance would be money well spent.
A spokeswoman for the foundation said it was too early to say how any of the $444 million allocated in the federal budget would be spent. “The foundation works with everyone and we aim to bring together the best people and organisations who need to be at the table to address the challenges and come up with the best solutions for the reef,” she said.

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