Robertson Grant: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18394] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I will take the opportunity to respond to a couple of matters that have been raised during the debate. The first of them I hate to say is that I will disappoint some colleagues in the Chamber but I have been unable to discover the exact date in 1867 when the Royal Society began. But I undertake as this debate carries on to endeavour to do that. 
Hon Simon Power 
: The member will never make a Minister with that sort of tardy work—very tardy! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Well the problem I say to Mr Power is that I turned around and looked for my officials but they were not there. 
Hon Member 
: It’s your bill; you should know the detail. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: That is right but we will resolve that issue before we complete our deliberations. I can tell members from the research I have been doing in the meantime that the Alexander Turnbull Library holds the transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society from 1868 to 1961 which is why I have been unable to discover what happened in 1867. That collection is obviously a rare collection. It includes statements and transactions from William Colenso Ernest Rutherford and Mr Hocken—a very esteemed group of people. 
The two matters I will respond to are about the structure of the Royal Society. There has been some allusion during the debate to some organisations within the society that were perhaps not as happy as others about the changes being proposed in the bill which are outlined in its preamble. I will briefly recap: the categories of membership of the society are set out in Section 9 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Act 1997 which is mentioned in the preamble. The highest level of membership is a fellowship of the Royal Society; at the time of the introduction of the bill there were 374 fellows and 56 honorary fellows. That is an esteemed form of membership of the organisation and an important part of how the Royal Society operates. 
Ordinary membership of the society is also open to anybody who thinks they can subscribe to the objectives of the society—which we have run through already—and who pays a fee. Ordinary members also have to have a university degree or 3 years’ professional experience within a field designated by the council of the society. So to be an ordinary member of the Royal Society one has to have either a degree or professional experience within a designated field of the society. There are approximately 1200 ordinary members of the society so that membership is quite a large part of the society. 
I will respond specifically—with some noise on my right here—to the question of the regional constituent organisations. As my colleague Charles Chauvel mentioned the original establishment of the Royal Society incorporated the four existing societies that were working in the area of science in New Zealand. One of the submissions that came to the select committee was from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Wellington branch. The Wellington branch in its submission noted I tell Mr Power that it could in fact trace its history back to 1851. That obviously predates the Royal Society itself by some 16 years so clearly one can understand why the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Wellington branch would be concerned about changes. I think it feels as a constituent organisation that it has been in existence longer than the overall organisation. 
The Wellington branch put its concerns to the Education and Science Committee. Those concerns were largely about what it described as the potential for the dilution of the promotion and advancement of science including the social sciences and technology by the introduction of the humanities. It noted that its branch resources are quite stretched merely servicing the current objects of the society let alone bringing in others. Obviously that is a philosophical difference and the branch as a regional constituent organisation is part of the Royal Society but also has its own identity. I think it is important to note that that is a particular type of membership and as we were going through the debate earlier on I think people were perhaps not as clear as they might have been about the fact that there are these different types of membership within the ruling body. [ 
Interruption 
] I am glad I am holding the attention of Government members! It is important to know that the 1997 Act also had changes that the Wellington branch had some concerns about. 
I will not take too much longer but I will just refer to the other issue that the Wellington branch raised which was the consultation undertaken in terms of the changes contained in this bill. I think it is important to note—and I also note Mr Peachey’s earlier comments in this regard—that this process has been under way for some time. It began in 2008 within the Royal Society and as I said in my earlier call the society is now operating in close consultation with the humanities. So we in the Chamber today are not holding up the society’s actual work but we are thoroughly debating an important issue. 
The society’s concern was that there had not been sufficient consultation. However within the submission made to the select committee by the Royal Society itself it was noted that in March 2009 the Royal Society of New Zealand Council resolved to work with the Council for the Humanities. From there the matter went to The Academy which as we have already discussed is the peak scientific body within the Royal Society and which had a process of consultation. It went to a fellows’ AGM in November 2009 and was discussed by the honorary fellows as well. It then went back to the council on 26 November 2009. So there was quite a thorough consultation process. I understand that the Wellington branch was concerned by that but I think the submission indicates that the branch should be satisfied. I just wanted to make reference to those two matters that had been raised by other members—about the structure of the society and indeed about the process that has been gone through to bring us to the stage where we are now. Thank you.