Shearer David: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Shearer David: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19876] 
DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 I would like to take a call on clause 12 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill because I think the role of honorary fellow is an extraordinarily important one. Before coming to the Chamber I ran though some of the names of current honorary fellows to take a look at who they are and what they are doing. They are people who have had some sort of an association with New Zealand and my colleague Jacinda Ardern talked about some of the more notable ones that we are very much aware of. I want to touch on some of these people and what they are doing. 
The role of an honorary fellow is stated on the Royal Society’s website and I just reflect on it. It states: “The Council may from time to time”—in accordance with academy by-laws—“admit as an Honorary Fellow any person who is not normally resident in New Zealand and who in their opinion has rendered eminent service to science technology or the humanities.” I have chosen a selection of these people today. They are people who have some connection to New Zealand who either have been born in New Zealand and have graduated and gone offshore or have come to New Zealand and studied and gone away again. They are normally at other universities across the world. This does something that is extraordinarily important. The area and the world of science is globally connected in ways that we could not have imagined many years ago. These fellows give us a connection to many of the universities across the world and they make the academic life and the international life of the Royal Society that much richer. 
I just flicked through and took some people’s names at random as members can see. One is Martin Banwell who is a graduate of Victoria University of Wellington. He is now at the Australian National University and is one of the most eminent organic chemists. Richard Bardgett is a professor of ecology at Lancaster University. He is also linked to New Zealand. He was awarded a foundation research project in New Zealand. He has supervised some doctoral theses and he is the leading-edge researcher on linkages between plant and soil communities and how soil organisms and nutrients in the soil go together. These are extraordinarily important for obvious reasons to New Zealand and at Lancaster University. These people have strong connections through the Royal Society and through their academic connections back into New Zealand. As I say these give us the geographic breadth that we need in New Zealand in order to enhance our science through these connections and these relationships across the world. 
Sir Patrick Bateson for example who has been around for a long time is a former provost of King’s College Cambridge. He is currently president of the Zoological Society of London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1983. His main connection with New Zealand is through his active membership of the scientific board of the National Research Centre for Growth and Development. It is a centre we are particularly proud of and it has already been mentioned in the debate today. 
These are all eminent people. Some of them are New Zealanders and some of them are associated with New Zealand. They are connected through the Royal Society to enable us to extend our breadth and give us those connections and linkages to science across the world. It is for that reason in a sense that we again look at the Royal Society. This heightens our awareness of the society and the sort of work it does for New Zealand which we are particularly proud of. Although this debate could go on for the next 5 years in the context of the time we have to debate this bill what we are doing and I think it is extremely valuable is emphasising and advertising the valuable role that the Royal Society plays in New Zealand. The names of the three people I have read out in no particular order are the sorts of people whom the Royal Society captures in its net.