Indigenous people who want an apology long ago understood that to get one they need the wider electorate on side. Farmers who need help fighting salinity know they need public and environmentalist support. Anyone with experience of politics knows that to get governments to move, you need substantial community sympathy as well as backing from industry, non-government organisations, churches and prominent individuals.

 

Science and academe have yet to absorb this basic lesson. They still believe - innocently - in the triumph of virtue, or that logic will win the political day.

 

Getting Australians and their governments to invest more in academe and research does not require whingeing, strident demands or militancy.

 

It requires sharing with all Australians the wonderful achievements of our researchers, their significance and impact. And doing so a damned sight more effectively than at present.

Perhaps an additional piece of advice might be that when publicising scientific and/or academic matters, avoid the hyperbole and spin that have become so much associated with media releases or infotainment.  Words such as "breakthrough", or phases such as "punching above our weight" should be at the very least sequestrated. And then we have those wonderful qualifiers, "may", "could"... and those uninformative rankings, such as "it is the 4^th  "best/largest/highest"... which of course may mean it accounts for less than 3% of the total if 1=60%, 2=30%, and 3=7%.

If it is begun to be seen that you're saying it like it is, just maybe the public will come to the conclusion that you're worth listen to.