The “but they’re working on curing children’s cancer!!!1!” is just an emotional hook to generate moral outrage. There are plenty of PhDs getting 18 an hour researching weapons systems, but they don’t make the news.

The first of those jobs is constructive and beneficial to both Australia and to humankind as a whole. The second is destructive and literally helps kill people. It's invalid to trivialise that difference down to "moral outrage" - in fact morality need not be involved at all - health research is a vital job I'd like to see rewarded better.