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:19869] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I will now respond to the questions raised by a number of members and I thank members for the questions they have raised on clause 11 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill. 
Shane Ardern 
: There’s obviously never any discussion in caucus. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: No no. It is a complete surprise to me I tell Mr Ardern to be given questions. But it shows how much the Labour members of Parliament are focused on this bill and have looked at the clauses to understand what they mean. I would be more than happy to take questions from National members when they work their way through the bill—I would be more than happy to do that. 
To answer questions about the status of honorary membership it is necessary to go back and discuss the concept of ordinary membership because in order to be an honorary member of the Royal Society one has to be an ordinary member. To be an ordinary member the rules of the Royal Society as opposed to the legislation set out some minimum requirements. This happens once one has joined up and as Moana Mackey has done one becomes a professional member. 
There are some requirements. One needs training: a university degree or its equivalent as determined by the Royal Society of New Zealand Council and/or 3 year’s professional experience within a field designated by the council as being relevant to the society. So clause 11 effectively broadens that out to include the humanities which is now a field designated as being relevant to the Royal Society. Thirdly one must have a formal adherence to the code of professional standards and ethics. The headings there are “Training” “Experience” and “Practice” and having established those or once that has been acknowledged one gets to put the letters MRSNZ Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand after one’s name as our colleague Moana Mackey is entitled to do. 
At that point there is then the question of nomination for honorary members and those nominations can be made by any member of the society at any time. Nominations for honorary members must be made to the chief executive of the Royal Society and shall include a statement of not more than 500 words giving reasons why the nominee is worthy of election. Then the Royal Society of New Zealand Council considers each nomination for an honorary member and if approval is given the nominee shall be invited to accept the appointment. At the same time as approval is given arrangements shall be made for the presentation of a suitably inscribed certificate. 
As with Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand and now with members it is quite clear that I can answer the question that Carol Beaumont raised. I tell her that in fact one does not have to be a resident of New Zealand to take up either of those honorary categories. Obviously when we come to clause 12 we will see that honorary fellows tend to be people who are based overseas as well. So honorary membership and ordinary membership are linked but they are separate categories. It has clearly been a practice of the Royal Society to recognise people as honorary members who have some connection with New Zealand but who are not in New Zealand. But obviously honorary members can be New Zealanders as well. 
I tell the Committee that people can join online because it has come up in the context of ordinary membership. In fact there is a button on the Royal Society website that people can click to join. It will cost members of this House $82 for an annual subscription to be a member of the Royal Society. Moana Mackey has to pay more. She has to pay about $150 I think as a professional member— 
Moana Mackey 
: My membership fees are due. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
:—and her membership fees are due so I do hope that she pays them. That is the connection to answer the question raised. 
In terms of the questions Jacinda Ardern raised about whether there had been any debate about what bringing the humanities in to the Royal Society would mean in terms of the number of honorary memberships I tell the member that that was not debated by the select committee. But I know that the approach the Royal Society has taken to the inclusion of the humanities is very inclusive. It is part of the Royal Society’s desire to expand the number of people who are actively involved in the Royal Society. I believe that honorary membership in addition to ordinary membership companions and fellows will expand over time. 
The question of gender is very interesting. I know that within the ranks of the Royal Society and within the ranks of the fellows there are some very active female members whom I know have been trying to encourage more involvement of women in the sciences. I know that there are some activities within the Royal Society by women fellows to try to encourage other women scientists. But as we have discussed variously throughout this debate women are underrepresented in the sciences and we obviously want to see more of them there.