NZ parliament more parent-friendly
As New Zealand lawmakers vigorously debated fuel prices in parliament this week, speaker Trevor Mallard called for order while feeding baby Tutanekai his bottle.
The six-week-old son of Labour MP Tamati 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 said, 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 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.
But worker rights advocates said 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.
Tania Te Whenua, a Maori lawyer who is working on a case for New Zealand’s largest union, the Public Service Association, alleging discrimination against indigenous Maori women employees, said she had felt hostility in previous workplaces over her children visiting.
“The ability to have, nurture and raise children is a celebrated aspect of Maori culture .... and to be made to feel as though that is frowned upon in the workplace leaves Maori feeling like the outsider,” she said.
She expressed support for the parliament speaker’s family policies.