Lees-Galloway Iain: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19853] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I have been listening closely to the debate on clause 9 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill which amends section 10 of the original Act. It refers to Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand. I have been listening intently as people have referred to different groups within society who we feel are underrepresented in the Fellows of the Royal Society. I share my colleagues’ hopes that those people might find they become better represented with this expansion into the humanities. 
I would like to reflect on something we can all celebrate and that is the representation of people from Palmerston North in the list of Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In a quick flick through the list on the Royal Society’s website I found 27 people from Palmerston North. The population of Palmerston North is about 80000 people which is about 2 percent of New Zealand’s population. By my rough maths 7.5 percent of the Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand are from Palmerston North. We are punching well above our weight and that is something to celebrate. I think it also reflects just how important research and development science and technology are to Palmerston North— 
Simon Bridges 
: Local MP. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: It is something I like to celebrate wherever I go I tell Mr Bridges. It is a very important part of the Palmerston North economy. Off the top of my head I think of people like David Penny at the Allan Wilson centre for molecular ecology and evolution at Massey University and I think of— 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Mason Durie 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: I think of Mason Durie the member is absolutely right. Mason Durie is someone who has achieved at a very high level and has become a Fellow of the Royal Society. 
These names are just picked randomly. They are no more important or more significant than any other of the 27 names on the list. Brent Clothier is a soil scientist and environmental scientist. He is the leader of one of New Zealand’s major soil science research programmes the Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative. His work is all about tracing the fate of water and chemicals in production systems and in the environment. That is such important work when we think about the impact of agriculture on our waterways. Again this is a huge issue in the Manawatu with the Manawatu River coming under a bit of fire for being one of the more polluted rivers in New Zealand and the work that someone like Brent is doing to assist the agricultural sector in tracing those chemicals as they move through the environment and move through environmental systems is hugely important not only to our environment but also to our economy as we try to ensure that we maintain our “clean green” brand internationally. Another person we could focus on is Bryce Buddle who is at the Hopkirk Research Institute I believe. His work is focused on immunology microbiology and applied science covering a range of animal diseases. He has a very advanced understanding of livestock diseases including mastitis in dairy cows orf virus in sheep pneumonia in sheep and goats and yersiniosis—I think is the word—in deer. Of course having a better understanding of all those diseases is again economically very very important to New Zealand and to our agricultural sector. I could also talk about Dr John Caradus and his work on clover—in fact internationally he is known as “Mr White Clover”. He is really right at the forefront of this research. 
I suppose what this reflects is just how important the work of these fellows is how important science research and development are to our agricultural sector just how much agriculture has to gain from a much more concentrated focus on research and development and how important better Government support for research and development would be to the work of those gentlemen I highlighted. I think one could highlight any number of people working in Palmerston North on research and development which is so important to developing our agricultural products and developing the way in which we undertake agriculture in this country to improve our environmental impact.