Hutchison Paul: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5238. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to speak on this Advanced Technology Institute Bill. It is again a landmark in connecting science and innovation with business with our tertiary education institutes with Crown research institutes and of course with private research institutes and in commercialising our science and innovation which is something that failed to happen during those 9 long years of the Labour Government. I too would like to acknowledge the huge contribution that Sir Paul Callaghan made to New Zealand science—not only to science but to advancing science in New Zealand and of course through being one of the great communicators in this area. It is absolutely right and proper that this institute will be named after him. 
Sadly we were treated to a very dismal battery from David Cunliffe who said that we in New Zealand spend or invest about 1 percent of GDP on science. The facts of the matter are that for 9 long years under Labour it was entirely static—entirely static. And yet over the last 4 years there has been a significant real increase of 17 percent in science and innovation spending making the total rise from $1.16 billion in 2011-12 to $1.24 billion 2012-13. One of the things that I thought was greatly worrying was when David Cunliffe suggested that nothing was happening in New Zealand. And yet we find over the last 4 to 5 years business research and innovation spending has increased significantly—10 percent a year compound growth over the last 4 to 5 years. 
Under this National Government things are happening and this Advanced Technology Institute will indeed assist to ensure that they continue to happen at a fast rate. This Government has set very ambitious targets in this respect. As David Cunliffe pointed out Government investment or public investment as a percentage of GDP is approximately 0.57 percent. We have an ambition to get to 0.8 percent over the next few years. But he is quite right in saying that it is in the private sector that New Zealand has had a bad record. That was particularly so for those 9 long years under Labour and that is why it is so significant that the growth in this area has been 10 percent a year compound increased under National for the last 4 to 5 years. 
There is one other thing that did worry me. That was when he said that the composition of the board contained no scientists. Well there is Neville Jordan a hugely highly recognised engineer and scientist in New Zealand who in 1975 founded MAS Technology Ltd a telecommunications microwave company. He grew MAS Technology to a multinational company with a successful initial public offering on the Nasdaq index and it has now with its successors earned over $1 billion in net foreign exchange for New Zealand. Who better to have on the Advanced Technology Institute board than people like Neville Jordan? I think we can be very encouraged by the insight that the National Government has in this respect. 
As you know the Advanced Technology Institute was a key recommendation of last year’s  
Powering Innovation 
 report. This report in itself was the culmination of a huge amount of thought that was put in by a variety of people in the science area in the economics area in the business area and in the academic area. I think it is going to be a great foundation for propelling this very important area into the future. As we know part of Budget 2012 was the Government’s allocation of $160 million over 4 years for the Advanced Technology Institute which will be situated in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch. This is the very point that David Cunliffe was going on about that many of our competitors overseas are investing so much more in this area of science and technology—three to four times more than New Zealand is. It is absolutely vital that we have mechanisms to ensure that we have an environment or an ecosystem in New Zealand that links science and innovation with the business sector. This is exactly what the Advanced Technology Institute is about. I commend this first reading to the House.