https://www.desmog.com/peter-ridd/
> Ridd presented a lecture based on the rejection of scientific findings that Australia’s sugarcane industry was damaging the Great Barrier Reef. [35]
> Ridd’s appearance was sponsored by the Queensland CANEGROWERS association, which opposed legislation to enact new water quality enforcement measures aimed at protecting the Reef from industrial runoff. The Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies supported the legislation, while the industry and Ridd claimed that it would be bad for business. [35]
> Commenting in advance of his lecture, Ridd said:
> “As I have been stating clearly for some time now, the scare stories about the Great Barrier Reef started in the 1960s when scientists first began work on the Reef. Since then, they have been crying wolf. […] The Reef is actually in great order. So are farmers really killing the Great Barrier Reef through run-off of pesticides and fertilisers, and mud in flood periods? No.” [35]