Joyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19078. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Science and Innovation):I just wanted to make a few comments on the matters the member David Clendon has raised. Firstly he finished I think by having a swipe at university morale. My view—and I think you can see it in the universities—is that actually they have worked very hard and done well out of Government funding over the last few years despite the global financial crisis. The reality is that the university sector is probably more positive about its funding than it has been for a significantly long time.I can agree with the member on some things in terms of the importance of innovation and that is something that this Government is investing hugely in. In fact the example he raises of Barker’s is just another of the companies that benefits from the research and development co-funding of Callaghan Innovation. Hundreds of companies around New Zealand benefit from that support as a result of this Government’s work.Where I cannot agree with him is the suggestion that somehow New Zealand is getting less innovative and that innovation has been downgraded in the last several years. There is no evidence to support that rhetoric at all. He needs to go across to the Fieldays in the last couple of weeks where there was amazing innovation on display. In fact if you talk about the productivity of the agricultural sector it is a story of a history of innovation. If they had taken the view a hundred years ago that he is taking today which is that there is no further innovation in the primary sector then we would be a lot poorer now because they have had a trajectory of innovation and productivity improvement over that time.He also raised productivity and said we are a continually low-productivity economy. Well I bring good news for him. Our productivity in the 12 months to March 2013 has improved. It had a 2 percent in front of it—one of the highest numbers for a significantly long period of time. So it is very encouraging that we are making good progress in the productivity space as well because we are very focused on this innovation.And I bring good news to him as well on the information and communications technology sector and the high-tech manufacturing sector which are continuing under this Government to grow from strength to strength and which now represent something like 8 percent of our total goods and services exports. That actually has them already up to numbers that are significant alongside some of our primary sector exports. We have wonderful companies like Xero and others that are succeeding under this Government with the support alongside them from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Callaghan Innovation but also importantly an environment that allows them to be competitive on the world stage with the sorts of economic settings that ensure that we have a sensible policy that delivers lower interest rates over the cycle more opportunities in the skill space and in hiring people and so on. That is what is occurring under this Government.But I also wanted to touch base briefly if I could on the National Science Challenges because they are an important part of the Government’s programme. They are on a range of research areas such as the deep south high-value nutrition resilience to nature’s challenges ageing well and a better start. I was looking down the list earlier and I thought to myself that there is one there—New Zealand’s biological heritage—that is a very topical subject today. I can report to the Committee that we have had a very recent additional application in regard to New Zealand’s biological heritage where we have had a proposal from a gentleman to actually reinstate New Zealand’s biological heritage in a sort of Jurassic Park model. His intention is to recreate the moa. Look I think that is a very aspirational target but I say to the member: why stop there? If you are going to start bringing back animals and people from the past why not bring back some people as well? Why not get the DNA of some New Zealanders and perhaps some Labour Prime Ministers from the past who have passed away; you could bring them—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —back to life so that there is—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —this is very important science—more talent on the Labour benches. I think that would be quite exciting and I am prepared to support that sort of innovation. I know Labour needs it and I would be happy to help. So I invite a proposal from the Labour Party in that regard alongside everything else we are doing in science and innovation.Vote agreed to.