Robertson Grant: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19871] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 Clause 12 concerns honorary fellows. Those who have been following the debate—and I am sure there are many following it on television and on the radio tonight as well members in the Chamber—will know that we have been patiently working our way through the various categories of membership of the Royal Society and the impact that this legislation has upon those categories. We now come to the question of honorary fellows. 
As previously discussed to be a Fellow of the Royal Society is the ultimate accolade of scientific excellence technological excellence and now excellence in the humanities. We have 360-odd fellows. 
Hon Member 
: They’re not odd. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Exactly. I have to correct that description. They are not odd fellows; I am saying that there are about 360 fellows of the Royal Society. Honorary fellows are those whom the academy council in accordance with by-laws admit. The main difference here—and this is the question that my colleague Carol Beaumont raised earlier in relation to honorary members—is that the person is not normally resident in New Zealand. This is the chance for the Royal Society of New Zealand to recognise people outside of New Zealand who have scientific excellence. 
My understanding is that generally speaking the people involved in this are people who have had a connection with New Zealand. They have perhaps come here and worked or studied for a period of time or perhaps they are working in collaboration with a New Zealand scientist on a project and that has led them to have a connection with the Royal Society. The other important element of becoming an honorary fellow is that they have rendered eminent service to science or technology and with the change we are making here in clause 12 that will become science technology or the humanities. 
The person who is admitted as an honorary fellow is not required to pay any levies to the society and is not entitled to vote in respect of any matters before the academy council which is to be renamed the academy executive committee under various clauses. Also they are not allowed to hold office in the society. This is the time for the Royal Society of New Zealand to recognise people who have delivered excellence in science but are not normally resident in New Zealand. It is I think an important part of how the Royal Society operates that there is this position within the membership structure. 
As we have noted having the different classes of membership provides different levels of recognition. I want to respond in that context to my colleague Rajen Prasad’s question about whether there are too many categories of membership. I do not think so. I think each category covers a very specific part of what it means to be in the Royal Society. The fellows are those who have reached the highest pinnacle of excellence in their field. The companions are those who have given encouragement and advancement to New Zealanders’ knowledge and understanding of science and they are not necessarily scientists themselves. The ordinary members are people with an interest in science and a background in science who as we know can progress to being professional members and indeed honorary members. 
I think that all of those categories represent different parts of what it means to work within the Royal Society and here in clause 12 we have the honorary fellows which is yet another example of where the Royal Society can reach out internationally. We know that that is important to the scientists within the Royal Society. 
Academic scholarship requires people to look outside of their own national boundaries and look internationally. People working in very similar fields—fields at the cutting edge of science like nanotechnology—have to work across country borders to make sure they can make the advances that are deemed necessary. 
When we look at the list of honorary fellows on the Royal Society website we see that we have people from all over the world from disciplines like physics earth and ocean sciences geographical sciences biology and electrochemical science and technology. We have people from the United States from Australia from Japan and from the United Kingdom. There is a range of people who are for the most part not resident in New Zealand although for example Nigel Priestley from Christchurch who is currently resident in Christchurch is an honorary fellow although he is normally based offshore. This clause expands for that range of membership the question of the humanities.