No Go for Mojo?
The media feeding frenzy that is whirling around regarding Mojo Mathers and her request for an electronic note-taker has to be the most meaningless of this weeks media beat ups. Here is the reality:
- Ms. Mathers will need the note-taker in order to function in parliament.
- It is the cheapest option
- I (the taxpayer) will be paying for it whichever budget it falls under (i.e. I don’t care “who” pays).
- The amount required is utterly trivial (in terms of Parliamentary Services total budget).
It beggars belief that this is a news-worthy item. It is obvious that parliamentary services will work out some compromise out of its budget of $137 million. That is what we pay them to do, for goodness’ sake – run parliament. That would include making sure that MPs can take part in the debates.
The question that should be asked is not where the funding should be coming from (who really cares?), but whose responsibility was it to go and ask Ms Mathers, in a civilised fashion, what her requirements would be? Not Lockwood Smith’s, I’ll warrant. This is something that should have been up and running by the start of parliament.
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Feb 15 12 5:57 pm
What is pathetic is that this kerfuffle centres on one politician.. why the hell isn’t Parliament already set up so that 700,000 deaf people and any number of oldies can see words on the TV screen in real time using the same technology!
JC
Feb 15 12 6:33 pm
Agreed. I see no reason why captioning is not already part of parliament.
Feb 15 12 6:01 pm
Yes your post echos mine on the subject.
And I put it to you that upon ”election” of said Ms Mathers to Parliament it would surely be up to her, with her colleagues if necessary, to ensure that all that was necessary for her to function in her new role as MP was in place before Parliament began., rather than to wait until now to get the nuts and bolts of it all sorted out.
Feb 15 12 6:20 pm
Playing politics at the expense of the speaker is hardly a good idea. One can only wonder what’s going on in the Green caucus is this is the sort of stunt they’re going to pull to get attention.
And of course, this is going to do a lot of damage to the deaf community.
Feb 15 12 9:14 pm
Yeah, fancy getting a deaf person elected to Parliament just so they could play politics with the Speaker. And the deaf community are no doubt complicit in this chicanery.
Those beatings you received as a child appear to have had some adverse effect.
For once, and this hurts, I agree with MacDoctor. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Feb 16 12 6:40 pm
You appear to be replying to a comment someone else wrote.
Feb 16 12 7:46 am
“And of course, this is going to do a lot of damage to the deaf community.”
How?
Feb 16 12 6:42 pm
Sorry, I meant to say that this would damage the green party within the deaf community.