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:19841] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairman Roy. I will pick up from where the previous speaker Mr Davis left off because one of the important amendments that was made to the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill earlier on was to include te reo Maori as part of the interpretation of “humanities”. I thank Mr Grant Robertson for his explanation of some of the mechanisms by which members of the Royal Society could receive remuneration and I noted some of the awards that are available. Perhaps one day we will see someone receive an award for the work he or she is doing in the field of te reo Maori. I am not sure what research opportunities might be available but certainly development of the language may be one. All languages develop over time. They are constantly changing and responding to the environment around them and te reo Maori is no different in that regard. One might wonder what te reo Maori has to do with research and development and I will get to that Mr Chairman. I can see in your face that you are wondering where this is going and I will get there shortly. 
I was at a meeting last week in Palmerston North at the Bio Commerce Centre which is a business incubator for innovative businesses. Many ideas come out of Massey University and the Crown research institutes in Palmerston North and the meeting was for entrepreneurs. It was an e2e meeting—an entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur meeting—and it was about sharing ideas. There was a presentation from one of the founders of Unlimited Realities which is a Palmerston North company that employs about 70 people in Palmerston North and Wellington. It is a very innovative business and exactly the kind of business we want to see more of in New Zealand and the presentation was made to a group of entrepreneurs. One of the people in the room wanted to start a business creating soft toys with a Maori cultural aspect to help young people in New Zealand to understand Maori culture and Maori mythology. The presenter actually said that this was really amazing. He said that part of what people are researching these days is how cultural capital can be included in new products new design and new ideas and spoke about the fact that bringing that cultural capital of Maori mythology and Maori culture to something as simple as a soft toy instilled a lot more value into that object and was potentially a really profitable business. The presenter really encouraged that chap to continue with this idea and to try to take it further. 
This is exactly an example I think of where the Royal Society might seek out someone who is researching Maori culture or te reo Maori. It might look at the work that person is doing and see how that cultural capital might be invested into items that might prove to be profitable and that one could build a profitable business on. This is exactly the sort of thing that potentially could grow the New Zealand economy. So I think it was absolutely appropriate that Kelvin Davis used the Maori language in Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori to highlight an area that could have enormous growth. This could happen only in New Zealand; this is the really amazing thing about it and I think it is something New Zealand does extremely well. Even in the area of tourism which we know does not bring an awful lot of money into New Zealand per job—in productivity terms it is not the most productive enterprise but it is an important part of our economy—there is an opportunity to research the ability to enhance the cultural aspects of tourism and that is something New Zealand is absolutely at the forefront of. I could see members of the Royal Society doing this not for dividend or profit of course but using their role in the Royal Society to see how far they could take the use of cultural capital to enhance products in New Zealand.