New Zealand speaker leads way in making parliament more parent-friendly

New Zealand Speaker Trevor Mallard feeding a Member of Parliament’s baby during a parliamentary session in Wellington. Picture: New Zealand Parliament and Speaker's Office/Handout via Reuters

New Zealand Speaker Trevor Mallard feeding a Member of Parliament’s baby during a parliamentary session in Wellington. Picture: New Zealand Parliament and Speaker's Office/Handout via Reuters

Published Aug 22, 2019

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Wellington - As New Zealand lawmakers

vigorously debated fuel prices in parliament this week, speaker

Trevor Mallard called for order while feeding baby Tūtānekai his

bottle.

The six-week-old son of Labour MP Tāmati Coffey and his

husband, born via a surrogate mother last month, was being

cuddled by his father in the debating chamber on Wednesday when

the speaker offered to hold him.

"There are times when I can be vaguely useful," Mallard told

Reuters, adding that he tried to help care for lawmakers' babies

when possible.

The newborn joins many other babies in the legislature after

Mallard relaxed rules in 2017 to make parliament more

child-friendly.

About a dozen MPs have had infants in a parliamentary baby

boom, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last year became New

Zealand's first premier to take maternity leave and the world's

second elected leader to give birth in office.

Her daughter Neve Te Aroha made headlines in September when

she accompanied Ardern to the United Nations General Assembly in

New York.

But worker rights advocates told Reuters that few New

Zealanders get the same rights to balance caring for their

families with work, and they hope the high-profile parliamentary

babies will bring a wider change in working conditions.

Speaker Trevor Mallard holding a Member of Parliament’s baby during a parliamentary session in Wellington. Picture: New Zealand Parliament and Speaker's Office/Handout via Reuters

Tania Te Whenua, a Māori lawyer who is working on a case for

New Zealand's largest union, the Public Service Association,

alleging discrimination against indigenous Māori women

employees, said she had felt hostility in previous workplaces

over her young children visiting her at work.

"The ability to have, nurture and raise children is a

celebrated aspect of Māori culture....and to be made to feel as

though that is frowned upon in the workplace leaves Māori

feeling like the outsider," she said.

She expressed support for the parliament speaker's family

policies.

Mallard, a political veteran, and father of three adult

children, with six grandchildren, hoped more employers would

follow his lead.

"What I've found is that it adds to the positive atmosphere

of the workplace," he said, adding that he regularly encountered

babies in the halls of power and even the indoor parliamentary

swimming pool.

Their presence provides a boost to morale, evidenced from

the eagerness of official messengers to swap their usual

document deliveries for the task of taking an infant into

parliament instead, he said.

"When there's a baby to be carried in....there's a fair bit

of competition to do the job," said Mallard.

Reuters

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