Kaye Nikki: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6882. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to speak on the Advanced Technology Institute Bill. As has already been acknowledged by the Minister of Science and Innovation obviously we acknowledge the late Sir Paul Callaghan and the fact that we are calling it Callaghan Innovation. Can I make just a couple of points. Firstly I want to say it is pleasing that many parties across this House support this bill and it is disappointing that the Green Party are not supporting the bill. But I want to say that through the Education and Science Committee there was some constructive engagement and I know that it was under tight time frames but we did a range of things to rectify that. 
I just want to address three or four points that Grant Robertson has made. The first point that Mr Robertson made with regard to Part 2 was around research science and technology providers. I want to point Mr Robertson to a couple of key clauses in the bill. One is around the interpretation clause. In my view and we express this in the commentary it clearly does cover the tertiary sector. We did not feel we needed to be more prescriptive. It is not only set out in the interpretation clause but also covered off in our commentary. So any questions that this does not cover the tertiary sector in my view clearly do not look at the key clauses in the bill that address this. 
The second point that Mr Robertson made was that there needs to be greater collaboration. Do you know what? We actually agreed with that during the select committee process. One of the key changes that we made as a result of some very powerful submissions from organisations like Kiwinet was that we inserted an additional reference in clause 14 to be clear that we understand the point which the Minister has made as well that it is really important that we are not unnecessarily replicating the good work that is happening out there in the sector and that is right across business and also the research organisations. So a key part of the four significant changes that we made at the select committee was to recognise and put a duty on Callaghan Innovation that there was going to be collaboration. 
The other key point that I want to address which has not been discussed yet but is in my view part of this discussion about the objectives and the purpose of Callaghan Innovation is to say as Mr Robertson mentioned that there is a transfer of people and there is a supporting aspect in terms of bringing key people together as part of our innovation sector. But there is also an overall discussion that the select committee had about the question of what was originally in the bill “net benefit for New Zealand” which we ended up I think reverting back to “benefit of New Zealand”. I want to touch on that just briefly because we had what was quite a long discussion. I think it is important in the context of the other objectives because there were a lot of questions that were raised around the research capability. We were very clear again as the Minister has mentioned that the establishment board has quite a lot of work to do and I think he has said to Tracey Martin today that it is important to make sure that that line falls in the right place. But there was this discussion about net benefit and we actually decided to remove that term “net” from the clause because in our view we believed that the benefit test encapsulated a wide range of benefits for New Zealand but also it aligns the Advanced Technology Institute with other entities such as Crown research institutes. 
The other point that Mr Robertson made was around the funding issue. I think that in clauses 12 13 and 14 the fact is actually very clearly set out that there is a wide discretion there in terms of Callaghan Innovation which gives the ability via the establishment board to have that flexibility because as I have said previously in debates technology is changing rapidly and relationships will change in the future—we know that from the inquiry into digital literacy that we have had before our Education and Science Committee. But I just want to touch on that issue of funding because I do believe that our Government has a very good record in terms of the issue of science funding. In Budget 2012 we delivered $250 million of new operating funding and I think towards the Advanced Technology Institute Callaghan Innovation there is $166 million. It reflects our belief that I think we are now spending $1.24 billion which is a 17 percent increase. That is incredibly important in very difficult fiscal times. I think that is important when we discuss that issue of the allocation of funding because that was something that did come to our select committee. That is why we decided to issue a very lengthy commentary on issues that were not necessarily legislative but were around operational issues. I would refer anyone who is listening to the clause that we added around internal research capability and research funding where we actually outlined the issues that came to the select committee. In my view we did not have to do that but we did that because we wanted to send a message that the select committee understood the issues out there around funding. 
So in my view the issues that Mr Robertson has raised were all very thoroughly canvassed during the select committee. Research science and technology providers clearly include the tertiary sector. The issue of collaboration was strengthened in the bill. In terms of the issue of the overall benefit to New Zealand again the purpose must be taken into account in terms of the overall benefit to New Zealand but also on the issue that Tracey Martin has raised we went to extreme lengths during the select committee process to canvass these issues at least in the commentary. I think this is going to be a very important bill for New Zealand.