19 Facts About Mojo Mathers

Mojo Celeste Mathers is a New Zealand politician and a former Member of Parliament for the Green Party.

Mojo Mathers became known through her involvement with the Malvern Hills Protection Society and helped prevent the Central Plains Water Trust's proposal to build a large irrigation dam in Coalgate.

Mojo Mathers was a senior policy advisor to the Green Party between 2006 and 2011.

Mojo Mathers's parents named her after the Muddy Waters' 1957 version of the song "Got My Mojo Working".

Mojo Mathers was born profoundly deaf "after oxygen was cut to her as newborn baby during a difficult birth".

Mojo Mathers only began to make significant use of Sign Language in the late 2000s, preferring to lipread and communicate orally before that.

Mojo Mathers has an Honours degree in mathematics and a master's degree in Conservation Forestry.

Mojo Mathers worked for the Green Party as a senior policy advisor between 2006 and 2011.

Mojo Mathers was the spokeswoman for the local community's opposition to the building of a large dam, proposed by the Central Plains Water Trust as part of a broader project to "convert the local area into intensive dairy farming" from 2001 to 2004.

Mojo Mathers was a founding member of the Malvern Hills Protection Society which succeeded in halting the dam project.

Mojo Mathers first stood for Parliament in the 2005 election in the Rakaia electorate, when she was ranked 16th on the Green Party list, winning 1,631 votes.

In 2009, Mojo Mathers wrote submissions opposing clauses of the Resource Management Amendment Bill 2009 and arguing for the "setting of minimum environmental standards" across the country.

Mojo Mathers wrote in opposition to the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill 2009, arguing it "would substantially weaken the existing emissions trading scheme, reducing incentives to reduce emissions while providing large ongoing subsidies to climate polluters at enormous cost to the taxpayer".

In 2011, Mojo Mathers described her areas of policy interest as "rural issues, biodiversity, forestry and water, as well as animal welfare, disability and women's rights".

Mojo Mathers suggested that "having sign language in Parliament" might help "enable the wider deaf community to access political debate".

Mojo Mathers served on the Commerce, Government Administration and Local Government and Environment select committees.

Mojo Mathers lost her seat at the 2017 general election, despite no change in her list ranking, because the Green Party received a smaller share of the party vote.

In 2019 Mojo Mathers started working as a policy advisor for Disabled Person's Assembly of New Zealand.

Mojo Mathers was appointed chief executive of the DPA in 2023.