Editorial: Give deaf MP what she needs

I'd like to think there isn't a New Zealander who wouldn't support the notion that children with disabilities should be given every opportunity to keep up with their peers at school, to have the opportunity to go on to tertiary study and find a vocation as an adult that makes them happy.

Which is why I find it so hard to understand how paying for new and deaf Green MP Mojo Mathers' note-taker has become an issue.

In her maiden speech in Parliament yesterday Ms Mathers touched briefly on the controversy that erupted regarding the funding of a note-taker who would provide an instant transcript of the Parliamentary debate.

Speaker Lockwood Smith has said the cost of the note-taker should be funded from Ms Mathers' support budget, but the Green Party have argued other MPs don't need to dip into their budgets to participate in Parliament, and making Ms Mathers do so would be discrimination.

I think Ms Mathers summed it up beautifully with one line from her maiden speech: "My election on the Green Party list under MMP means that hearing impaired, deaf and people with disabilities have representation in Parliament by someone who shares with them many of the same experiences and challenges that they face."

What an inspiration she is to young people that they too can grow up to represent what they believe in. To impede her further by making her take the cost out of her budget would only discourage others from taking a similar path - from a little girl who wore large hearing aids in a harness strapped to her body to a politician.

The argument that Ms Mathers' is a list MP and the Green Party knew they would be imposing this cost on the country's taxpayers is vile. Imagine if the party had taken that into consideration when deciding the order of their list.

Co-leader Metiria Turei has said forcing Ms Mathers to fund the service herself would set a dangerous precedent for how all disabled people were treated.

How true.

Could you imagine the outrage if a new MP in a wheelchair was made to fund a new ramp to get them into Parliament in the first place.

Disability isn't a choice but the choice people like Ms Mathers make to still have a brilliant and contributing career despite it deserves our backing.

There are plenty of things my taxpayer dollars have been wasted on, but Ms Mathers' notetaker won't be one of them.

The importance of it being taken care of for her outweighs the dollars.