8 Mar 2012

Greens to fight on for disabled MPs

9:34 pm on 8 March 2012

The Green Party is vowing to keep fighting to ensure MPs with disabilities are accommodated at Parliament.

On Wednesday night the Parliamentary Services Commission failed to reach a conclusion on funding note-takers for Green MP Mojo Mathers who is Parliament's first profoundly deaf member.

Speaker Lockwood Smith says having his office pay for them at a cost of $20 to $30,000 a year is just temporary.

The Greens have legal advice that funding can come from the Office of the Clerk's budget and says Dr Smith should call a meeting of the Standing Orders Committee to make that happen.

Ms Mathers says she will not be the last MP with a hearing impairment and the issue needs to be sorted.