Chadwick Steve: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19845] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 It is wonderful to be back debating the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill. I think that each time we come to the Chamber we all learn so much more. I acknowledge the sponsor of the bill Grant Robertson who is in the chair. He has demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of and passion for this subject in bringing the bill to the Committee of the whole House again today. 
I was a bit disappointed to hear a usually very reasonable colleague in Government Louise Upston calling out about how many women were there in the society. I am sure that the member for Taupo will be delighted that women can be fellows too. She talked about equity issues. I do not think that is for politicians to decide. Members will be pleased to know that in clause 9 it is something that is left entirely to the academy executive committee. I am not sure whether the sponsor of the bill in the chair can clarify whether the academy executive committee does look at grounds of equity and at Maori representation as well as an extension to include the humanities which this bill proposes at the request of the Royal Society. But I daresay we will be revisiting this bill in the future and we may be asked to include something else. 
I congratulate our colleague Te Ururoa Flavell on proposing an amendment that takes te reo Maori into account. I think that is a wonderful addition along with the humanities. When we know that we have Professor Belich contributing as a fellow along with 366 other wonderful New Zealanders we can see that perhaps there is a role for other fantastic New Zealanders to be considered by the Royal Society of New Zealand for the status of this honorary fellowship in the future which is clarified in clause 9(1). 
One of the issues that I do not know about and perhaps the sponsor of the bill could clarify—and it is a serious issue—is whether these fellowships are ever awarded posthumously. I want to acknowledge seriously in the Chamber today the contribution of a wonderful gentleman who was buried today here in Wellington and that is Dr Lindsay Haas. He was a world-renowned neurologist who has worked in the field of Guillain-Barré syndrome which is a very obscure condition linked with eating contaminated chicken. We have some neurologists in this country who may never be nominated by the Royal Society to be recognised as a fellow. In our dealings with Dr Lindsay Haas he was a very compassionate passionate and humane New Zealander as a neurologist and as a leading expert in this field in the world. It would be wonderful if posthumous recognition by a fellowship could be considered. I seriously do not know whether that is part of the brief of the academy executive committee which looks at the allocation of fellowships. 
When we think that there are 366 fellows on the list that Mr Robertson referred to we see that they are our iconic New Zealanders. Having known Dr Lindsay Haas as I did and given the acknowledgments that came from neurologists all around the world today at his funeral service I can tell members that he was a fairly fundamental Kiwi bloke with a new migrant family from Germany who settled here in New Zealand. I do not think he ever saw himself as needing or warranting the status of a fellow in order for him to contribute to the field of medical science but sometimes these awards are acknowledged by their own contemporaries and by their own peers and to become a Fellow of the Royal Society is the greatest recognition of their contribution to science in New Zealand. It is a privilege to acknowledge in the Chamber the contribution of Dr Lindsay Haas to New Zealand society and to medicine. He was the sort of practitioner who had a library around him in the Wellington school of medicine that other neurologists envied. He could pull out a research proposal and say that actually—