On Tuesday and Wednesday, November 12^th - 13^th, 154 graduate students, scientists, engineers, and technicians will take two days out to talk science and technology with 58% of the nation's Federal Parliamentarians.  The inaugural meeting was in November 1999 and the intention was for "some Australian scientists [to take] the message directly to Canberra for a 'Science meets Parliament Day', an event organised by The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)." That was how the ABC's News in Science opened its account. It went on to quote Professor Peter Cullen the then President of FASTS.

Science, technology and innovation should be at the centre of the Australian economy. Research isn't a cost, it's an investment. Studies in the USA show how strongly industry depends on public science in developing the next generation of products and processes. Every year in the USA, 180,000 jobs are created as technology is transferred from the laboratory to industry".
 

Our politicians are former lawyers, economists, teachers, farmers or trade unionists - hardly a scientist among them. On November 24 we'll be knocking on their doors, with solid examples of how scientific research has benefited the nation.

This week of the 150 MHR's and 76 Senators FASTS reports some 130 have allocated time to have a chat in their parliamentary offices with one or two of the attendees. Most of the parliamentarians will be backbenchers who, understandably, will have the immediate interests of their constituents on their minds. It's all very well for the boffins to front up once a year to explain why scientific research and development is a good thing, it's quite another to get someone whose job will be on the line in less than two years to become actively interested. Most members of parliament are polite unless confrontationally abused but it has to be recognised that if the matter of the closure of a bank branch in the member's consistency is of concern to a significant number of voters in the electorate, that will have priority over matters which are seen to have less immediate effect on the constituents' wellbeing.

So just how valuable has been the Federation's attempt at communicating the importance of scientific research to the members of Australia's Federal Parliament? To start with, "Well, if you don't care, why should we?" would seem a reasonable opener. Scientists must be science's advocates. The fact that our 38 public universities, the private sector as well as state and federal governmental institutions employing tens upon tens of thousands of science and engineering graduates deliver up less than 160 individuals prepared to take the message to our government doesn't suggest overwhelming zeal.

FASTS makes the point that the "direct membership of [its constituent societies] is estimated to be in excess of 60,000, and the widest possible representation of the views of scientists and technologists is ensured by the involvement and participation of the relevant societies." In short those volunteering to front our Federal Parliamentarians in the next two days represent just over 0.25% of the estimated membership. South Sydney's Rugby League Club did a lot better than that in sustaining its lobbying for reinstatement to the National Rugby League.