The Green Party has written to Speaker Lockwood Smith asking him to bring forward a meeting of the Parliamentary Services Committee.



Smith has said Parliamentary Service cannot provide an extra $20,000-$30,000 funding for note-takers to aid deaf MP Mojo Mathers in the debating chamber.

A row broke out yesterday between the Green Party and Dr Smith after Ms Mathers was told she must pay the note-takers of her own budget.

Dr Smith said yesterday the department was working to overcome the problem with technology and he would take advice from the committee when they meet on March 7.



But Greens leader Metiria Turei said the matter needed to be resolved before then and has requested the committee meet sooner.



Smith said yesterday the Green party should look at ways to fund the note-takers.



But the party believes there are other options, such as using money from the budget of the Office of the Clerk.



This can be used to pay for ''the timeliness and quality of servicing of Te Reo Māori interpretation and translation services.'' The approximately $30,000 required for electronic note taking would make up only 0.17 per cent of that budget, the party said.



And the party are also pointing to the cost of maintaining the sound system for the House. It had $1m upgrade in 2008 and a yearly maintenance contract costs at least $20,000.



''Mojo does not use this service. However, hearing MPs are not required to cover this cost of this out of their individual budgets.''

Fairfax NZ SPEAKING OUT: Mojo Mathers talks to the media after being told she must pay for note-taking technology out of her own budget.

Cash for jaunts but not to help deaf MP

It can afford to send MPs on a $13,000 South American jaunt, shell out $15,000 on art and almost $8000 on parties.

Ms Mathers, who was elected in November, said the decision not to fund note-takers for her in the debating chamber.was discrimination and would deter people with disabilities from entering Parliament.

However, Dr Smith insisted he did not have the authority to provide extra staff time to do the note- taking.

"Support for members of Parliament is something that's spelt out in the Speaker's directions, it's separately appropriated by Parliament. I can't, under the law, simply say: 'Oh, forget about that, we'll put a bit of money in from here or there'. It's something I have to consult on."

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei this morning said the Speaker did not have to extend the support hours Mathers was entitled to.

MPs gets funding to cover 80 hours of staff time a week, or two full-time equivalent workers, for assistants inside and outside Parliament.

Mathers estimates she needs 1000 hours a year for staff to send an instant transcript of proceedings in the debating chamber to a laptop on her desk.

"This is funding that could come out of budgets that run the Te Reo translators or that run the audio-visual systems," she told Fairfax.

"Although it is about the employment of a person, it is a technical issue we need to resolve and part of the technical solution includes employing staff.

"Mojo has a legitimate concern about his decision and it effects more people than just her.

Electronic note-taking would eventually lead to the captioning of Parliament television which would enable the 700,000 hearing impaired people in New Zealand to access political debate, she said.

National Foundation for the Deaf spokeswoman Louise Carroll said the move "is probably one of the poorest I've seen from a Government in my whole life". She urged Ms Mathers to complain to the Human Rights Commissioner.

Disability Rights Commissioner Paul Gibson said: "Parliament has a moral duty to show leadership in ensuring fair and equal access to and participation in the political process."

Employment lawyer Stephanie Dyhrberg said MPs were not employees but under the human rights legislation they could potentially raise legal action.

Last year, on an annual taxpayer-funded overseas junket, Dr Smith and three MPs toured Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay for 10 days. No trip costs were released, but estimates showed it could cost taxpayers more than $13,000.

Mr Hughes pointed out that Parliament's art work budget is $15,000.

It was revealed this week that Parliamentary Service threw a string of leaving functions and a $5000 Christmas party.