Parliament speaker taken too long to address deaf MP

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Tue, 14 Feb 2012 6:13p.m.

Mathers is arguing that it should not come out of the Green Party budget

Mathers is arguing that it should not come out of the Green Party budget

By Tova O’Brien

New Zealand’s first deaf MP has barely had a chance to warm her seat in Parliament and says she is being discriminated against.

To do her job Green Party MP Mojo Mathers needs electronic note-taking equipment in the house. However, the Parliamentary Service says they cannot give her extra money to pay for it.

Ms Mathers has no problem lip reading but not when it comes to the bluster of the house.

“It's not possible to lip read at the level of accuracy I need,” she says.

So she needs transcribers to take live notes to participate.

Speaker Lockwood Smith says fine; Parliament will pay for the technology but not the manpower because MPs already get support.

Ms Mathers is arguing that it should not come out of the Green Party budget.

Part of that argument is that Parliament pays $240,000 a year for Te Reo translators in the house whereas Ms Mathers’ transcribers would cost no more than $30,000.

Even Winston Peters says he will chip in up to $6000 and says he expects all other parties to do the same.

“They promise, [Parliamentary Service] to produce a non-discriminatory environment. This is seriously discriminatory,” says Mr Peters.

The Speaker has known since election night in late November that Parliament would have to accommodate the deaf MP.

Mr Smith has referred the issue to the Parliamentary Services Commission to consider whether Ms Mathers should get special funding, but that meeting is not until March and until then Ms Mathers is on her own. It begs the question, given Mr Smith has known about this for so long, why has it not been resolved?

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Comments

15 Feb 2012 04:21a.m.

Geoff wrote:

@Jim. You are right on the button & I couldn't agree more. I trust that, behind the scenes, Mojo Mathers is pressuring the Green Party members into dusting the cobwebs off their wallets & purses.

14 Feb 2012 11:49p.m.

carlstar wrote:

only 2 options 1 - do it and stop calling it special as it is an official language. 2 - don't do it and stop calling it an official language. if it was Chinese or Russian needed etc then that would be special and clearly should be paid for by the individual.

14 Feb 2012 09:05p.m.

Davo wrote:

@Elize, unfortunately, there are disabled people out there for whom there would be no careers at all were it not for the assistance of the taxpayer. It's time the taxpayers thought about those in need for a change.

14 Feb 2012 09:02p.m.

Jim Seaview wrote:

Quote: "Mr Smith has referred the issue to the Parliamentary Services Commission to consider whether Ms Mathers should get special funding, but that meeting is not until March and until then Ms Mathers is on her own. It begs the question, given Mr Smith has known about this for so long, why has it not been resolved?" Dr Smith has approved the Notebook. The two Co-Leaders of the Green Party have had 3 months to organise the manpower. I forgot = All the MPs have been on Annual leave. Nothing gets done over Xmas / new year.
There are 14 Green MPs and they should all donate just over $2000 each and the problem woud be fixed. If Mojo Mathers had won an electoral seat - I would agree that Parliament should cover all the costs, but I do not share the same for any "List MP" of any party that gets into Parliament via the Party List seats as no electorate voted them in or chose them. I respect and admire Mojo Mathers - but she has been let down badly by her own Green party.

14 Feb 2012 06:55p.m.

Elize wrote:

Would it not be nice if her parties MP's choose to donate her the extra $30 from their allowances? They will score some brownie points, which they desperately need, and save us taxpayers heaps. Although I feel empathy with the disabled, they should choose careers that they can handle withou extra help from taxpayers. If a person is blind and insists to drive a car because that is their human right, should the taxpayer pay for a navigator?