Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3788] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Energy and Resources) 
: 
 The member who just resumed her seat Jeanette Fitzsimons started her speech by saying that the work of the Education and Science Committee in conducting the financial review of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd was not very informative. I suppose on the details of what are essentially employment issues the report is not informative but on the substance of what the institute does I think it is very informative. I will give some of the information that is contained in this report so that people can get a sense of it. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd is a very fine organisation and very focused on the work that is precise to it—in other words the long-range forecasting and consideration of matters relating to our atmosphere. 
In the year in consideration the institute employed in excess of 750 people at some 15 locations across New Zealand. The member was upset that of a $58 million capital spend some $3 million was spent on refitting facilities. I simply suggest that even scientists like to have up-to-date facilities to work in. I do not see too much of a difficulty in an organisation that was able to turn a $10 million profit last year spending some of that money on making sure that facilities are right and appropriate for its workers. 
In that regard it is worth noting that in New Zealand we are often critical of the extent to which there is a Government agency involvement in the sciences. This particular organisation is a commercial organisation but it is owned by the Crown. In the last year its revenues were some $120.7 million and that was money paid to the organisation in one way or another for particular pieces of research for some information and for activity that blends science with our economy and our economic activity. 
I will point to some of those current activities. Firstly one of the activities that the Education and Science Committee wanted to highlight in this report was the ensuring of a secure and sustainable energy supply for New Zealand. A collaboration of Crown research institutes has been brought together under the lead agency the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and funded by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology to give New Zealanders better information about what we need for a future energy supply that can be produced and relied on as a fuel source from sustainable fuel feeding. 
This agency was also involved in achieving higher returns from aquaculture—something quite different. New Zealand is a country that makes a reasonable amount of export dollars from aquaculture. In my view aquaculture has one of the biggest potentials for rapid expansion and the work that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research does in working out the best places to locate aquaculture facilities and the best species to farm etc. is extremely valuable. 
It also undertakes a lot of other fisheries work. For example I know that tuna fishermen will routinely contract with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research for water temperature information and from that information the fishermen will be able to work out where the tuna are most likely to run. The net effect of that is that the fishermen can position themselves for those runs using the least amount of fuel possible and can be at sea for the least number of days possible. Those sorts of mergers between the science of climate monitoring and the activity of fishing indicate how closely science and business can work together. 
The wise allocation of fresh water is part of the work that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research does—it provides the advice stream around that. No one in this Chamber would not understand that the future of our freshwater supplies in New Zealand is a matter that we should all be concerned about. Throughout the country there are issues around the overallocation of groundwater resources and the potential for water storage above ground. Those activities can be augmented by much of the work that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research does in this particular area. I think it is a very good organisation and this is an excellent report; the Committee should be eager to adopt it. 
Report noted.