She suggested that "having sign language in Parliament" might help "enable the wider deaf community to access political debate". New Zealand Sign Language is already an official language of New Zealand but, unlike English and Māori, it was not represented in Parliament.[3] The preliminary election night vote counts gave the Green Party only 13 seats, but when official counts were released on 10 December 2011, they had obtained sufficient special votes to gain another seat, meaning that Mathers was elected into Parliament.[1][12]