Rosewarne DanDAN ROSEWARNE (Labour): Kia ora Madam Speaker. It's my pleasure to take a call on the Thomas Cawthron Trust Amendment Bill for its second reading. I just want to thank the member of Nelson Rachel Boyack who brought this bill before the House. Like everyone else has mentioned she's an extremely formidable MP and it's really good that she's bringing this bill through the House and then also for her ongoing work with the Cawthron Institute as a trustee on their board.This private bill will make it easier for the Cawthron Institute to operate in a proper manner without needing High Court or parliamentary approval. It'll clarify the administrative and governance matters such as the responsibilities and powers of the board of directors and things like remuneration. This bill helps modernise the governance of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board and it's fit so it can continue its work more efficiently.The most important aspect of this bill for me is that it allows for an additional representation of the iwi voice. Until now the Thomas Cawthron Trust Act of 1924—it only allowed the board to have three statutory members and they were: the MP for Nelson the mayor for Nelson and then the Anglican Bishop of Nelson. So to better represent and support the people of Nelson and New Zealand it's important that local iwis can participate in structures like the Cawthron Institute and with this private bill Te Tauihu iwi now have a seat at this board and this will be a huge benefit to the work of this leading science institution in New Zealand.The Cawthron Institute has been an important part of scientific research and progress in New Zealand history for more than 100 years now as has been mentioned in previous contributions. Since 1921 the institute has helped advance science to the benefit of all New Zealanders in many different fields from things like agriculture aquaculture forestry marine freshwater systems and things like that.Last year the member for Nelson and I along with a few of our other colleagues went and visited the Cawthron national algae centre just to see some of the innovative research that they were doing. It was a whole lot of visits we did but we ended up spending the afternoon there which was absolutely fantastic. Interestingly the first stage of the centre was officially opened by the Prime Minister two years ago and that was just two years after $6 million worth of funding was provided by the Government's Provincial Growth Fund. Cawthron also contributed $2 million towards the centre. The centre will enable the Cawthron researchers to build on their existing expertise to meet growing global demand for algae-based products and solutions. They've had some fantastic studies going on from the extraction of bioactive compounds from microalgae for high-value pharmaceutical products through to methane-busting seaweed as has been mentioned in other contributions. You know there are enormous possibilities for a thriving New Zealand algae sector. It has significantly contributed to the growth of New Zealand's primary industries and now it's helping protect our marine and freshwater environments.Interestingly seaweed cultivation is the world's fastest growing aquaculture sector with the global seaweed industry worth more than US$6 billion per year and there are many species that have potential to be transformed into a range of commercial products. When the member for Nelson and I visited this institute I thought there'd only be one kind of seaweed but interestingly there's a whole range of types of seaweed that are out there and they are testing different types to see what response they have with methane busting which is fantastic. That will get transformed into different commercial products as well as offering environmental benefits to counteract climate change. So we're seeing some fantastic innovative ideas going on down there.The Cawthron Institute employs hundreds of highly qualified personnel that stand at the forefront of research in their fields globally and recently the Cawthron Institute announced a breakthrough discovery in the production of algae-based pain medication that could become an alternative to opioids. So some fantastic innovation going on there and they're refining that as we go on. This was also made possible thanks to a $950000 contribution by this Government.Their work also protects our marine and freshwater environment. They have developed a promising prototype bubble blower installed beneath a pontoon to help mitigate biofouling and it has the potential to be an important tool to reduce the spread of marine pests in our marinas. There are many marinas around the country that would absolutely benefit from this once it's out there in full swing.Their salmon breeding facility is also impressive and we also visited that. So this area it's a segregated area within the facility. You go in there you put on the white overalls you put on white protective like boots to go over your shoes and you go in there and you can see the experiments that they're doing in there. It's a selective breeding process so what they're trying to do is enable or research salmon farming that can be done in deeper waters and in waters of varying temperatures. What that will enable us to do is establish salmon farms in different areas that we're not currently farming in. So that's some very exciting research going on in that space and this will allow Aotearoa to ensure that we can continue farming salmon as our sea temperatures change.Other initiatives like the Cawthron New Zealand River Awards are very good too. They celebrate the achievements of people committed to improving freshwater health and show this institute's contribution to the development of healthy ecosystems across New Zealand. This private bill will help the Cawthron Institute modernise its governance and proceed with its research to the highest international standards.With the select committee process I want to thank the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee—Glen Bennett: Great committee.DAN ROSEWARNE: —for its work on improving this bill—yeah absolutely it's a very good committee. I've subbed in on it on a number of occasions. But you know there have been some simple but important clarifications that have been made throughout the pushing around of this bill and I agree with a lot of them—so for example that elected officials should not receive remuneration for their position on the board of the Cawthron Institute as they hold this position only because they are elected officials. It's also important to better define the role the Te Tauihu iwi member will play on this board. The select committee decided that this member should also have the power to select six other board members. However other considerations such as the remuneration of that member will be decided by the board itself as iwi members often participate on such boards for other reasons than monetary remuneration.What I'm really excited about with the Cawthron Institute is that a lot of the other contributions that they're going to make as they further evolve in their research particularly in the R & D space—their research as we can all agree is cutting-edge and I have no doubt that integrating mātauranga Maori and iwi voices will really strengthen their board and the work that they do going forward. So I really commend this bill to the House.