Woods Megan: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: Advanced Technology Institute Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6897. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 I want to take just a short call on this bill the Advanced Technology Institute Bill and speak to the title. I think this is a nice way to round up this legislation and like previous speakers and like my colleague David Parker I want to acknowledge Sir Paul Callaghan and his family and the way in which he is being memorialised with the naming of this institute after him. I think it is incredibly important and I think there is no one in this Chamber who does not acknowledge the contribution that Sir Paul has made to thinking in this country both as a scientist and as someone who has thought very deeply about the role and the place of science and research in the New Zealand economy. 
One of the things I want to reflect on is Sir Paul’s relationship with the Royal Society of New Zealand. Of course Sir Paul was at one time the president of the academy council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He was a scientist of some note not just an economic thinker who published over 240 articles in peer review journals. We cannot underestimate the brilliance of this man in his own field of academic discipline. In 2001 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and in 2005 he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Rutherford Medal a very high honour to be awarded from the Royal Society of New Zealand. Then of course in 2008 he was awarded a James Cook Fellowship one of the highest honours to be awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand. 
Therefore it was with great sadness for me personally to read the Royal Society of New Zealand’s submission on this legislation and I want to enter in the  
Hansard 
 just one paragraph from that submission where it says: “The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the ATI removal of a research focus and the implication of large scale staff relocation all risk putting the personnel situation of the new institute in jeopardy. This level of upheaval puts at risk important research skill and capability if expertise is unable to transition it will be lost overseas.” To me this is really sad because one of the things I know that Sir Paul Callaghan knew was that one of our greatest resources in this country and one of our greatest potentials is the minds of our people our personnel capability and our ability to come up with innovative and brilliant concepts that we can use to form the basis of our economy. And here we have an organisation that Sir Paul was so linked to throughout his life—and it acknowledged his brilliance as a scientist in this country—submitting about its fear that the establishment of the Advanced Technology Institute in its current form would actually lead to a loss of that skill. That is something that we on this side of the House think is a real opportunity lost. 
We have argued all the way though that to truly honour Sir Paul Callaghan and the work he has contributed to this country we need to have this link through to the real research and to real science and to not have this organisation Callaghan Innovation be just a front end for commercialisation. It has to be about research. It has to be about science. We cannot separate the two. They are so inextricably linked and that is something Sir Paul Callaghan thought. I think that man’s life stands as a testament to the way in which someone who engages in fundamental science can also be at the cutting edge of thinking about commercialisation and how it is that we integrate fundamental science research and academic excellence into our economy in New Zealand. 
We are pleased Sir Paul is being honoured but on this side of the Chamber we want to make sure that the organisation the institute that is established lives up to the name it is having put on its masthead. It is a big name to live up to and we have to get all these things right. We all need to honour that man and the greatest way for us to honour him is to make sure we have research excellence at the core of our thinking around innovation. Thank you. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 151 in the name of the Hon Steven Joyce to clause 1 be agreed to. 
Amendment agreed to. 
Clause 1 as amended agreed to. 
Clause 2 agreed to. 
Bill reported with amendment. 
Report adopted.