Choudhary Ashraf: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Choudhary Ashraf: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 I appreciate this call. I first of all congratulate Mr Robertson on the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill. I am one of the probably very few scientists in this Chamber. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Not a political scientist. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: No not a political scientist—a real scientist. 
Chris Hipkins 
: This is supposed to be about bringing humanities in! 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: I will talk about that. I tell the member to just hold on a moment and give me time. 
I had been doing science for about 26 years before I joined Parliament. I must confess that as a scientist as I was trained I always thought that scientists were creatures above everything else. They did science and never really thought about social sciences or humanities. I have to make that confession. I thought a scientist’s job was to create machinery to design something that would be useful as an economic tool and to create wealth and all that. I never thought about the fact that it had social implications particularly on humanity. 
I was doing research on zero-tillage technology. I do not know if people are aware of it but it is a technology that reduces the amount of tillage one needs to grow crops. The benefits of that technology were that people could save fuel on the farm they could save labour they could save energy they could save fertiliser and they could have benefits in terms of reducing climate change. There were a lot of benefits but we never really thought about the social impact of that technology until about 15 years ago when we did a survey among farmers. We asked the farmers who were using the technology what were the real benefits to them. The technology is now used worldwide. Out of all the countries most farmers are using the technology for growing crops. I was in Western Australia recently where zero-tillage technology has become a conventional technology. Farmers are really benefiting. 
We did a survey at Massey University to find out what real impact the farmers felt from that technology. One of the top three impacts was that they had more time and they could spend that time playing golf. I thought to myself after receiving this feedback that people do think about the social part of it. The impact is not just how beneficial the technology is in terms of saving fuel saving fertiliser growing more crops and all that; it actually impacts on families. In that survey the farmers also suggested they could spend more time with their families—and they could get out and play some golf. From that point onward I started thinking about including the social sciences the humanities part of the work in my science. 
We had a number of projects overseas in terms of NZAID the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme work that I have done over the years. From that point onward I have made sure that every project has a part in it that examined the impact on the social aspects of life which is part of the humanities. 
I am really delighted that this bill includes extending to the humanities the Royal Society’s role as a provider that helps science and technology. I am really pleased after 134 years of its existence that Mr Robertson has come up with this bill that includes extending the Royal Society’s function to include the humanities. I think it is very important to recognise as Charles Chauvel suggested earlier how many different organisations are working in the social arena that have never been considered to be a part of science work. I think those scientists in my view need to be recognised; they should be made honorary fellows or fellows of the society. They are no different from scientists and engineers. Those high achievers in their own fields should be given the opportunity.