Beaumont Carol: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Beaumont Carol: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19435] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to rise to speak again on the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill—my first time this evening—and I am speaking on clause 7 which substitutes a new section 6 “Functions” into the Royal Society of New Zealand Act. Clearly new section 6 “Functions” is almost the “how to”. So how will the Royal Society advance and promote these matters? The obvious change has been that instead of just science and technology the humanities have now been included. The functions are quite broad-ranging and if members look at them as outlined in clause 7 they will see that all the way through we now have the addition of the humanities. 
Many of my colleagues have I think eloquently explained why it is so important that we include the humanities and throughout the functions listed in section 6(a) to (f) the humanities are now included. Part of those functions as stated in paragraph (a) is “to foster in the New Zealand community a culture that supports science technology and the humanities”. I think that is very important for a whole range of reasons. 
The pursuit of knowledge for the end goal if you like of acquiring that knowledge and then using it and the processes by which one acquires knowledge are very very important. It is in some ways what goes to heart of us being human—the way that we learn and the way that we use what we learn. Clause 7 looks at how the society will promote or “foster in the New Zealand community a culture that supports science technology and the humanities”. That will be done by promoting public awareness and through the advancement of education. 
It is interesting to look at section 6(a)(ii) in clause 7 because it talks about the advancement of “science and technology education:” as opposed to science humanities and technology education. I wonder whether that is deliberate. Perhaps my colleague Grant Robertson the fine member sponsoring this bill could explain to me why the humanities are left out of that particular subparagraph. 
Importantly in the functions there is the issue of excellence. I think that excellence and promoting excellence in everything we do including science technology and the humanities is important. New section 6 in clause 7 looks at other things such as providing infrastructure and support for the professional needs of scholars who are part of the Royal Society and importantly it looks at establishing a code of professional standards and ethics. 
I am interested in paragraph (e) of new section 6 which states: “to provide expert advice on important public issues to the Government and the community:”. I am unclear as to how frequently the Royal Society would fulfil that role. Perhaps my colleague Grant Robertson might stand and explain to me as probably our foremost expert on the Royal Society how frequently it does provide expert advice on important public issues to the Government and the community. That will certainly be strengthened by the addition of the humanities. 
Paragraph (f) is very interesting because in it the council of the Royal Society is given the opportunity to do “all other lawful things …”. I put my mind to what that might look like and whether it would change with the addition of the humanities in those functions. Would the all other lawful things look somewhat different? I wondered whether that could include specifically the promotion of what is called by some people “integrative education”. A number of speakers tonight have stood up and made a very compelling case that the distinctions are somewhat arbitrary between science the humanities and technology and that there are many subject areas where in fact all three components are at play at once. 
There is I think an important role for the promotion of integrative education and understanding. Michael Roth the president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut is a strong advocate for integrative education that mixes science and the arts. He uses the example of neuroscience and behaviour as one of its fastest-growing majors which links those things. He talked about it as a kind of intellectual cross-training which I thought was a very striking description. 
So I think that with the addition of the humanities it may be that these functions should specifically include a point of promoting integrative education. Again perhaps my colleague Grant Robertson might be able to explain whether any consideration was given by the Royal Society or the select committee to this idea.