Despite strong legal protections for academic freedom, universities are finding ways to sack staff whose views don’t accord with their own, they say.

(L to R) James Nuzzo, Peter Ridd, and Fiona Girkin—Australian academics who claim to have fallen victim to "cancel culture." Courtesy of Australians for Science and Freedom

 

Rex Widerstrom

Three academics who claim they lost their jobs because of their views on controversial topics have warned that Australian universities are “cancelling” teaching and research staff whose views don’t align with the prevailing ideology, rather than encouraging academic freedom and debate.

James L. Nuzzo, Peter Ridd, and Fiona Girkin told their stories at the recent “Progress through Science and Freedom” conference in Sydney.

Nuzzo is an exercise scientist and men’s health researcher who has published over 80 peer-reviewed research articles. Among them are studies into sex differences in exercise science as well as bias against men’s issues in the U.N. and World Health Organisation.

He claims he was “cancelled” by the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University (ECU) when it refused to renew his adjunct appointment in March of 2025 because of his writings on sex, gender, and related topics, which he discovered through Freedom of Information requests.

Equity Not an Australian Value, Though Equality Is: Nuzzo

Nuzzo points out that sex and gender have long been areas of his research, and he’s been widely published on the topic. Yet the people at ECU who opposed him, including the executive dean, “have no expertise in this area.”

He says of the two accusations against him—of being anti-equity and anti-female—the first is true.

“I’ve even published in one of the best exercise science journals about how equity in physical activity is a misguided goal, and they didn’t like that,” he said.

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“Equity is nowhere to be found in Australian values and principles. I noticed because I recently took the citizenship test here. But equality of opportunity can be, and a fair go. But that’s different.”

He called the anti-female claim “completely bogus,” arguing that opposing gender equity did not mean he was against women.

“In fact, I have been one of the only exercise scientists in the world, let alone ECU, who has publicly advocated for the protection of women’s sports,” Nuzzo said.

He characterised the people who want to cancel others for their opinions as “bullies.”

“They’re passive-aggressive, and they don’t care. There’s the psychological impact on the person being cancelled, there’s the impact on their reputation and the impact on their career,” he said.

“Ultimately,” he concluded, “when you get a female-to-male ratio that is too high or of a certain level, it leads to increased cancel culture on campus.”

Laws Can’t Protect Against the ‘Cultural Problem’: Ridd

Ridd is an Australian physicist, author, and former professor at James Cook University (JCU) in North Queensland. He’s now an adjunct fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.

His problems with the university arose when he wrote an opinion piece in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, challenging the prevailing understanding of the state of the Great Barrier Reef, and criticising specific papers which had been published on the topic.

He argues that the world’s largest coral reef system was not in any danger of dying out due to climate change.

The university subjected him to several disciplinary measures over two years, culminating in his firing for what JCU claimed was his refusal to take down confidential information he had published online, which it said had nothing to do with his views on climate change.

Ridd sued and initially won, being awarded in excess of $1 million for wrongful dismissal, together with a $125,000 pecuniary penalty, but the university appealed and subsequently prevailed in both the Federal and High Courts.

Ridd believes the academic freedom clause in the Higher Education Support Act, introduced by Senator Pauline Hanson, provides strong legal protection, “but it won’t protect people .... if there’s this cultural problem” within universities.

Every university is governed by its own Act, and overseen by government appointees to its board.

“So you actually have the solution of the government sorting out the universities through the Acts, which they fail to do. But then should we be allowing it to?” he asked, because that too has implications for academic freedom.

Some Feminists are ‘Toxic’ and ‘Dangerous’: Girkin

Girkin, an associate lecturer in policing and emergency management at the University of Tasmania, lost her role teaching police recruits about domestic and family violence issues after comments she made in a YouTube interview with men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt.

She urged police, when they get called to a domestic violence incident, to “not look at gender but look at behaviour.”

Girkin says she was impressed by the approach of the Tasmanian Police, because they were “not going in and making assumptions.”

But when she mentioned this to Arndt on the podcast, those who disagreed sought to have her removed.

“So the ABC started the ball rolling, and all my friends and family found out that I'd lost the job that I loved in the paper [and] online. It happened very quickly,” she said.

As a result of the publicity surrounding the incident, Girkin says she didn’t leave her house for several weeks because she was “terrified.”

“Tasmania, it’s a small place; when something becomes public, everybody knows about it. And I know other people in Tasmania who have gone up against the feminists and had death threats,” she said.

“Nobody wanted to actually have a discussion with me or allow me to do the research [or] give me the data to show me that I’m wrong. Nobody was willing to do that because I went against the woke culture at the university. So it wasn’t about truth; it was about sticking to the agenda.”

Statistics Skewed, Researcher Alleges

Girkin said that according to feedback she was hearing from all levels of policing, domestic violence offenders were evenly split between men and women.

However, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that the vast majority—81 percent—of the 1,582 family or domestic violence-related offenders processed in Tasmania last financial year were male.

She says the anomaly between her findings and the official statistics occurs because the Tasmanian Police allegedly did not want the public to know they were encountering many domestic violence incidents by female perpetrators.

“The courts were going, ‘No, no, we can’t charge women,’” she added, “so the stats that were coming out were 20 percent of victims were men [and] 80 percent [were] women. And that’s the stats that were spruiked by the services.”

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