Motions — Crop and Food Research—Air Accident

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.

The Opposition supports the Government motion and extends its condolences to the families of those who were lost. Even though Christchurch may be regarded as a large city, there is no doubt that the loss of this number of lives will have a big effect on it. New Zealand is a small country, and on behalf of some of my constituents whose brother was the pilot and who are also good friends of mine, I can say that they will live with the effects of this for some time. Also, the science community in New Zealand has lost some people who were friends and colleagues, and who, as the Minister has said, were starting to make a significant impact as a group of people on the progress of New Zealand science.

We also offer our support to Paul Tocker, who is the chief executive of Crop and Food Research and who is known to many of us. He now has the task of taking the team that he leads through this difficult time, and, as the Minister proposed, rebuilding it quickly. I compliment the Minister on meeting people from Crop and Food Research as soon as he was able to after the tragedy. As has been pointed out, the staff who were lost had unique skills. Among them were those who had both national and international reputations, but, despite the opportunities they may have had elsewhere, they chose to work in New Zealand because of the contribution they could make to this country. Those who knew them have the comfort of knowing that, even with this loss, they left the legacy of their work, from which the whole community will benefit.

Finally, I record our thanks as members of Parliament to all those who contribute every day to the safety of air travel, which we all take for granted. Every time we get on either a commercial or a charter flight we believe that we will arrive at our destination safely. This tragedy has taught all of us who fly so often that we cannot take that for granted.

On behalf of New Zealand First, I endorse the Minister’s motion. This is a sad time for New Zealand, but it is more of a sad time for the families of those people who died. Our prayers and hearts go out to the families of those folk, and to the two accident victims who are in hospital. We wish them a speedy recovery. We endorse the Government’s motion.

ACT New Zealand also endorses this motion as our expression of sorrow and condolences to the friends, colleagues, loved ones, and families of those who have been lost—the seven executives of the Crown research institute, Crop and Food Research, and also the pilot, Michael Bannerman. We also have feelings for the two survivors, Richard Barton and Tim Lindley. Those two survivors will need to live with their loss and their sorrow as they mourn their colleagues. In particular, I would like to comment on Michael Bannerman. His mother is well known to my wife and me. She lived in Tauranga up until very recently, and moved to Christchurch just a few months back to be with her family. I know that she will take this loss very hard.

The Green Party supports the motion and extends its condolences to the families and the colleagues of those who died so tragically on Friday. We note that a number of them had young families, and that all of them have families and loved ones. Our thoughts are with all of them as they mourn at present.

It is a particularly heavy blow for any organisation to lose so many of its staff, and at such a senior level, at one time. Crop and Food Research is part of a wider scientific community with an international reputation, and such a loss will reverberate for some time amongst the science and research communities of which they were part. Our very best wishes go to the survivors. They will have a particularly heavy burden to bear as they reflect on being spared when their colleagues were killed, and we hope their recovery will be speedy. Our best wishes go to Paul Tocker and Crop and Food Research as together they rebuild their organisation.

United Future wishes to extend its condolences to the families and colleagues of those who were killed in the Christchurch air crash, and to be associated with the motion that has been moved by the Minister this afternoon.

This was a tragedy of awesome potential. Seventy seconds from safety, the plane crashed and killed those eight people, a number of whom were on their way to join colleagues celebrating a staff occasion, and who never arrived. It is awesome too because of the contribution the Crop and Food Research people had made in the world of international research, and who, as the Minister acknowledged, were on the point of establishing huge international credibility for it. It is awesome when we consider the families who waited for a phone call that never came. The story of the woman whose husband survived, Mrs Barton, being too scared to watch television, once she knew the plane was down, for fear of what the news might bring, brought home to all of us the intensity of this tragedy at a personal level. As the Leader of the Opposition reflected, I am sure that story made all of us who use aircraft more frequently than most just think again about our safety in such circumstances.

This is a very sad occasion for the scientific community in New Zealand, and for the families involved. Like other members of this House, I extend my deepest personal sympathy to everyone who has suffered a tragic loss in this case.

We join also with the House and the Minister in expressing our deep regret and sorrow on this occasion. There is no doubt that the crash of this aircraft at 7.15 on Friday 6 June was, quite simply, a genuine tragedy. Despite the increasing sophistication of our communications systems and the growth of our population, New Zealand fundamentally remains a very small country, made up of small communities of interest and relatively small regional populations. So the death of significant numbers of people—on this occasion, from one Crown research institute in particular—sends shock waves through our communities of interest, and particularly through the Canterbury community. It is both a strength and weakness of New Zealand that such a loss is personal to so many in our country, and, in particular, we think of those at Crop and Food Research. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims on this sad occasion.

Motion agreed to.

Honourable members stood as a mark of respect.