James Cook University has been ordered to pay marine physicist Peter Ridd more than $1.2 million in compensation after he was wrongly sacked, a court has ruled.
Dr Ridd was dismissed by James Cook University (JCU) in 2018 after being issued with a number of warnings for comments he made about a coral researcher and for telling Sky TV that organisations like the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) could "no longer be trusted".
Court documents at the time said Dr Ridd described his colleague in an email as "not having any clue about the weather", and that he "will give the normal doom science about the Great Barrier Reef".
Dr Ridd said in another email that JCU, along with other universities, were "Orwellian in nature".
In his judgment in April this year, Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta found Dr Ridd's termination was unlawful, as JCU's enterprise agreement protected his comments over and above the university's code of conduct.
Today, Judge Vasta made a provisional order for the payment of compensation to Dr Ridd amounting to more than $1.2 million.
The university was ordered to pay $1,094,214.47 as compensation and $125,000 in pecuniary penalties for Dr Ridd.
Judge Vasta said Dr Ridd was entitled to speak and write without fear of retribution.
The university can now appeal the ruling in the Federal Court.
