Prasad Rajen: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Prasad Rajen: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19870] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 I have been a little bemused by clause 11 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill and I want to ask a few questions of the member in the chair Grant Robertson who is acting more and more like a professor every time he speaks on this particular bill. 
The point I will make about membership is that I just wonder about one issue when I look at the different types of membership in the Royal Society. A little part of me just asks whether there are too many categories and if there are whether this is the best way to do it. Maybe there is a very good reason for there to be lots of different categories because the sciences are so diverse and there are many different types of people—does the member have a question? 
Jo Goodhew 
: Which category are we on now? 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: It is clause 11 that I am talking about. 
Jo Goodhew 
: Oh you are? I was wondering. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Yes and it is about honorary members. The member might like to apply to become first a member of the society then an ordinary member and then maybe she could become an honorary member. Perhaps the member might like to think about doing that because I know that Chris Hipkins is thinking about applying for membership in one of these categories as well. 
My question is about how one can find out from the website who is an honorary member. I was surprised by my colleague Moana Mackey; I knew that she was a member but I did not know that she was a professional member. Unless one knows the little trick that the member in the chair talked about— 
David Shearer 
: He didn’t know either. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Ha ha. If one has the membership title next to one’s name that means something. But certainly when we go to the website and click on ordinary membership below that there is no list headed “Honorary Members.” So at the moment this is a bit of a mysterious category. Who are they? Where are they? Are they in New Zealand? The member in the chair might want to get that information. I am sure he has it. He has been so well-informed about this bill about science and about the Royal Society that I am sure he will have an explanation. It might just be that in order to find out who the honorary members are one needs to go to the list of members go through them and see that some do not have a title next to their name. I cannot recall the title at the moment. Maybe it is them. If that is so then some clarification by the Royal Society would be really helpful to travellers like me. 
There is another point I want to make about this clause. I salute the opportunity for the humanities to have honorary members. I wonder—and the member in the chair might proffer an opinion on this—how long it will take before there are honorary members in the humanities field. Does it happen rather quickly? The humanities are being added now so there will be a flood of applications I am sure. How long will it be before someone moves from being an ordinary member to being an honorary member? It is an important signal. It indicates a level of contribution of eminent service to science and in this case to the humanities. There are any number of scientists from the humanities who could qualify for honorary membership immediately. I wonder whether by adding the humanities in clause 11 it is envisaged that there will be some kind of fast track whereby members from the humanities will be able to avail themselves of this particular membership category. 
Of course this leads me to another rather general point that I would make about membership and the reasons why perhaps not many of our Maori people and our Pacific people are in the various categories. At the moment there are some whom I recognise but clearly and as Kris Faafoi said there are eminent people from the humanities who would qualify. I would expect to see before too long that list increase quite significantly. 
The provision in clause 11 is a very good one. It leads me to ask questions in order to clarify who is in this membership category and I am sure the member in the chair will take a call to explain that. Thank you.