Hodgson Pete: Motions — Crop and Food Research—Air Accident 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hodgson Pete: Motions — Crop and Food Research—Air Accident 
[Sitting date: 10 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6037. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister for Crown Research Institutes) 
: 
 I move  
That this House express its sense of sadness at the tragic loss of seven members of the senior management team of Crop and Food Research and the pilot in an air accident at Christchurch last Friday evening; that the House convey its sympathy and condolences to the families colleagues and friends of those who have died; and further that this House extend its best wishes to the two surviving members who have sustained serious injuries.  
Friday night’s tragedy has created large gaps in the lives of many. So many people have lost a partner a parent a child a friend or a colleague. The ripples of this tragedy spread wide across New Zealand and off shore. Because seven of those who died worked in one place in adjacent offices those ripples will lap one another for some time to come. Tributes have flowed for the pilot—his passion for flying his love of painting of New Zealand’s mountains and his care for people. Those tributes are I am sure richly deserved. 
I want to pay tribute to the seven members of the senior management team at Crop and Food Research. I knew only some of them but I am told that each and every one of them loved his or her job and was dedicated and committed to it. They had rich talent and commitment beyond that—in sport in recreation in art and in their community work and of course they were committed to their friends and families including young families. But it is their work at Crop and Food Research that I especially want to acknowledge. Some had worked there for years but others were much more recently appointed having been recruited from the public sector the private sector and off shore. As a team they had just hit their straps. 
As an organisation Crop and Food Research was about to reap the excitement and rewards of their talents. That had become apparent to me over recent times and even more so earlier this year when I spent an extended period of time at the Lincoln campus learning of their plans and aspirations. The intellectual skill and the vision of the organisation are simply awe inspiring and the quality of the research is as always world-class. The seven who died—though mostly scientists by training—were not involved in research but in the challenging areas of management communication commercialisation strategic development market development and so on. Managing innovation is very hard and very important and those people I knew who were involved with that were very good at it. They were clever clever people. Their deaths therefore leave a huge gap in the organisation and in New Zealand’s innovation system in general. 
However Crop and Food has real depth and other Crown research institutes have moved swiftly to pack tangible support round it. As well we can express our relief at the almost miraculous survival of two of those who were on board. Replacing those who have died will be very difficult but it must and will be done. Those whom I knew who have died would straightforwardly demand as much as I am sure would all of them.