Adam Bennett in the NZ Herald reports:

Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith had been criticised over his decision not to grant funding for a note-taker for Ms Mathers.

He did not decide not to grant funding. He was not able to do so without going through a formal process, which he has now done.

However this morning he announced permanent funding had been approved by the Parliamentary Service.

The matter was discussed earlier this week by the Parliamentary Service Commission – made up of senior MPs from all parties.

Dr Smith said “having complied with all legal requirements” a final decision regarding funding support for Ms Mathers had been made.

“I am issuing a direction to the Parliamentary Service which will provide the lawful authority to provide equipment and personnel services to Ms Mathers while she is a member of Parliament.

“Specifically, Ms Mathers will continue to have access to electronic note takers while she is an MP. This support will be in addition to that to which she is already entitled, to ensure she may fulfill her role as a member of Parliament. ”

Dr Smith said the cost of the services would be met from the Parliamentary Service’s baseline and was additional to the funding provided to support all members.

This is the correct decision.

Dr Smith went to say he planned to develop a captioning service to make proceedings of the House more accessible to the hearing impaired.

“Services for the business of the House are not subject to the advice of the Parliamentary Service Commission. Consequently, I intend working with the Office of the Clerk to develop this service and will raise this with the Standing Orders Committee which deals with such matters.” 

This is also a good thing.

Tags: Lockwood Smith, Mojo Mathers

Remember all the demonisation of the Speaker over the Mathers funding situation. The Herald reports:

Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith has been criticised for his decision not to grant funding for Ms Mathers, but he has said he does not have the authority to approve it.

The matter will be discussed by the Parliamentary Service Commission – made up of senior MPs from all parties – tomorrow night.

A spokeswoman for Dr Smith – who has been paying for the service from his parliamentary budget while the matter is being debated – said he had “some options to offer”.

So Lockwood has been using his own private budget to cover it. Hardly the person the Greens portrayed.

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said her party had received advice from a law firm on whether the money should come out of the support budget all MPs receive, or from that which supports the overall operation of Parliament.

I wonder how many hours of recording could have been paid for, by now hiring lawyers?

Tags: Lockwood Smith, Mojo Mathers

I blogged yesterday a report from Select Committee News that Mojo Mathers suggested to  Radio NZ at the Commerce Select Committee that they consider charging international internet users of the Radio NZ website. I commented:

This is a very bad idea. The Internet is global and any attempts to charge people based on their location is flawed. It means New Zealanders who are travelling overseas would not be able to access Radio NZ for free. It means expats would be locked off from it. It also would encourage spoofing of IP addresses.

Mojo Mathers has said that she did not suggest that, in fact she asked no questions to Radio NZ. Select Committee News has confirmed they made an error, and the question came from Committee Chair Todd McClay.

Just so people understand, Select Committee News is not published by the Office of the Clerk. It is a private publication that summarises select committee hearings, and puts out a newsletter you can subscribe to. They also provide a subject matter search, so you can get alerts just for your area of interest.

I’ve found SCN to be a hugely valuable resource, and normally highly accurate. The error in this case was seemingly caused by name plates being in front of the wrong MPs, and of course with 35 new MPs, it takes a while for reporters to recognise them all.

I have updated the original post.

UPDATE: Todd McClay has texted:

My question was in relation to possible charges for online content not their normal broadcasters. Ie they have some great series, programmes etc that whilst they should remain free to NZers, as with BBC, could be on a fee paying basis for foreigners. Just as you can buy BBC dvds, or programmes from overseas radio and news services. They have huge amounts of content which is not even digitized yet. 

Good to have the clarification.

Tags: Mojo Mathers, SCN, Todd McClay

We all get frustrated when various sites are blocked because your IP address says you are from the wrong country. Well one NZ MP wants Radio NZ to do the same. Select Committee News reported:

Mojo Mathers (Green) asked RNZ whether people from all over the world are now listening to RNZ through the internet. Griffin responded that about 75% of internet customers are from New Zealand and the rest are from around the world. Cavanagh added that online broadcasting was hugely beneficial to RNZ as it enabled them to supply on-demand content and reach New Zealander’s anywhere in the World. Mathers suggested charging international internet users of RNZ and Cavanagh not sure about the idea.

This is a very bad idea. The Internet is global and any attempts to charge people based on their location is flawed. It means New Zealanders who are travelling overseas would not be able to access Radio NZ for free. It means expats would be locked off from it. It also would encourage spoofing of IP addresses.

UPDATE: SCN had the identity of the MP wrong – it was Todd McClay, not Mojo Mathers. See this post for details.

Tags: Mojo Mathers, Radio NZ

The NZ Herald editorial:

Parliament and the Greens ought to have made necessary arrangements long before she came to deliver her maiden speech this week. Neither side can escape blame for the unseemly public argument it became.

Parliamentary Service had provided her with technical equipment to receive an electronic transcript of what was said in the House, but had not provided a person to write the transcript.

Speaker Lockwood Smith thought the Greens would assign someone from their support staff, the Greens thought Parliament would provide. When the Greens discovered otherwise this week they made the most of it.

It should have been sorted out earlier, and I agree neither side escapes blame.

They succeeded in embarrassing Dr Smith, who sounded heartless until he explained that additional staffing for a member was beyond his statutory power to provide. But the Greens should be embarrassed too. Having put a deaf person high on their list, they ought to have foreseen all her needs in Parliament and taken more responsibility for her assistance.

It was not unreasonable to think the party would provide her assistant. Ideally, the person would not only transcribe speeches but be alert to comments, interjections and nuances of particular interest to the MP and her party. A public servant might not be ideal. Doubtless the party does want its member to be assisted by one of their own but it wants additional funding for it.

The Greens get 56,000 hours of funding, and only 1,000 hours are needed for transcription. What would be interesting is to find out whether the Greens are using all their hours currently and really can’t manage to cover the transcriber themselves, or whether they could – but just wanted to make the Speaker look bad?

Tags: editorials, Mojo Mathers, NZ Herald

Stuff reports:

Parliamentary Service was working hard to provide technology and he had asked officials to explore voice recognition software. “That technology is something we are working on right now. That doesn’t have to wait for a Parliamentary Service Commission,” he said.

Smith also accused Mathers and Green party whip Gareth Hughes of politicising the matter and making public the details of a private meeting.

So it is not a dispute over technology to help her do her job, as it appeared yesterday. That is being provided. It is a dispute over hours.

Each MP gets funding to cover 80 hours of staff time, or two full-time equivalent workers, a week.

Mojo Mathers estimates she needs 1000 hours a year for electronic note-taking required for her to participate in Parliament through a laptop on her debating chamber desk.

The Speaker has suggested the other 13 Green MPs pool their support budgets to give some of their unused support hours to Mathers.

Now I do support Mathers being given extra hours, but this can’t be done at the whim of the Speaker. All Electorate MPs gets 120 hours a week and all List MPs 80 hours a week. To give Mathers extra hours you need to set up a third category of MP, and publish a formal determination specifying the criteria to qualify, and what the extra support hours or funding will be.

It is worth noting that the Green caucus as a whole gets 56,000 hours of support staff a year, plus $1.88 million of funding. The 1,000 hours is less than 2% of their overall hours and a party that consists entirely of List MPs rarely uses all its allocated hours up.

Again, I support a change to the funding rules to cater for a situation like Mathers. But the Greens could have chosen to work with the Speaker to establish a time-table for changing the determinations, rather than do a hatchet job on him.

Tags: Lockwood Smith, Mojo Mathers, parliamentary spending

Andrea Vance at Stuff reports:

Speaker Lockwood Smith has told deaf MP Mojo Mathers she must pay for the $30,000 technology to speak in Parliament out of her own budget.

Green MP Mathers made history when she became New Zealand’s first profoundly deaf MP in November.

She will give her maiden speech in the House tomorrow, which will be translated by sign-language interpreters.

But Smith has told the Green Party that Parliamentary Services will not pay for the electronic note-taking equipment which Mathers needs to take part in debates.

This has already caused outrage on Twitter. My stance is that I think Parliamentary Service should fund the note-taking equipment if it is essential to allow Mathers to participate in the House.

However I note that so far only one side of the issue has been reported. We do not know what the reasoning is behind this decision – just what the Greens have said is the reason. It would be helpful for the Parliamentary Service to explain the decision.

Finally i would also point out that there is no question of Mathers personally paying for the note-taking equipment. In fact the taxpayers, through Parliamentary Service, will be paying either way. The Greens receive a total of $5.64m funding over this parliamentary term to support their MPs, so this represents around 0.5% of their funding over the next three years.

However if the equipment is funded from the Greens allocation, then they can’t spend that money on other things such as staff, research, advertising. And they have a quite legitimate view that having an MP with a disability shouldn’t cost them a portion of their budget.

UPDATE: The Herald reports further info:

However, the Speaker’s office said Dr Smith and Parliamentary Services did not have the authority to approve the extra funding.

“He would have to go to the Parliamentary Service Commission, he’d have to go to the Government and ask for additional funding to do what she wants because its not part of the appropriation,” a spokeswoman said.

Dr Smith would raise the issue at next month’s Parliamentary Service Commission meeting.

The Speaker is holding a press conference at 3.30 pm also on this issue.

Tags: Mojo Mathers

Dave at Big News blogs:

Kevin Campbell is the campaign manager for the Conservative Party. Prior to the election he was very happy in using Facebook to promote the party and most comments were of a political nature. But after the election he appears to have closed ranks after something he posted that many found offensive. Incidentally I was told by a Conservative Party candidate that they were not to use social media during the campaign.

Campbell questioned whether new Green MP Mojo Mathers, who is the world’s fifth profoundly deaf MP, should even be an MP as she didn’t have all her “faculties” – and only people who have all their faculties should be MPs. In other words, because she is deaf, she is unsuitable as an MP. Mathers became an MP after special votes were counted and I think she is perfectly suitable to be an effective MP.

I don’t support her politics, but I certainly also think Mathers is perfectly suitable to be an effective MP. We should celebrate people who overcome adversity and disability, not denigrate them.

Incidentally one of my favourite actresses is Marlee Matlin who played pollster Joey Lucas on West Wing. She’s currently on the Celebrity Apprentice and doing well.

As for Mr Campbell, I presume it is the same Mr Campbell who used to refer to the Prime Minister as “John the Jew”. Need more be said.

Tags: Conservative Party, Kevin Campbell, Mojo Mathers

The Greens released (after I had it leaked to me three years ago) this week their draft party list for the 2011 election. It is highly persuasive with the party membership, but normally there are some minor changes. At this stage the list is:

1. Metiria Turei
2. Russel Norman
3. Kevin Hague
4. Catherine Delahunty
5. Kennedy Graham
6. Gareth Hughes
7. Eugenie Sage
8. Jan Logie
9. David Clendon
10. Holly Walker
11. Denise Roche
12. Julie Anne Genter
13. Mojo Mathers
14. James Shaw
15. Richard Leckinger

The Greens could well get 10 MPs. Eugenie Sage is a green green – a long time Forest & Bird and one of the sacked ECan Councillors. Jan Logie stood for the Greens in the Mana by-election. She is the development manager at the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities.

Holly Walker is a current Green Press Secretary, and former Critic editor. I rate her as a significant political talent, and if she gets in, will be one of their more effective MPs.

Denise Roche at 11 is from Waiheke Island, and a former Auckland City Councillor. She is well known in Auckland Central, where Greens do very well.

Julie-Anne Genter is a young transport planner. She has a stellar acadamic record, and from I can tell would be a significant asset to the Greens caucus.

Mojo Mathers is a parliamentary party staffer also, and No 15 Rick Leckinger is a former parliamentary staffer.  That’s three current or former staffers in the top 15. I don’t know Mojo, but regard Rick as a good guy who has a very good understand of Internet issues. He suffers from a minor disability of being born in Georgia, USA

Overall looks to be one of their strongest and most youthful line ups. Of course I think their policies are generally whacked.

For them to get into Parliament Holly, Denise and Julie-Anne etc, they need to lift their vote share from 2008. If I was a centre left voter, I’d be looking closely at whom Labour has on their list around the threshold of “might make it”, and think about which candidates you would rather have in Parliament.

Tags: Denise Roche, Eugenie Sage, Greens, Holly Walker, James Shaw, Jan logie, Julie Anne Genter, Mojo Mathers, Rick Leckinger