Life still hard for Parliament mums

It’s a long way from an easy task but being a young mum in New Zealand’s Parliament is a lot smoother than it used to be.

Babies are now welcome in the debating chamber. The House doesn’t sit into the wee hours any more. And the private little room used for breastfeeding close to the chamber is no longer called ‘‘the wives’ room’’.

We don’t know for sure whether Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will bring her child into the halls of Parliament, once her six weeks leave are over.

If she does there are plenty of challenges, even with Speaker Trevor Mallard doing his best to make Parliament a more familyfriendly place. In former Green MP Holly Walker’s words, it’s still ‘‘very very hard’’.

Parliament’s arcane rules were written by men for other men. Sitting sessions have become longer and more frequent over the decades, leading to far less time at home.

Media representatives and others expect phone calls to be answered early in the morning and deep into the evening.

Indeed, all MPS – even the lowliest backbenchers – have hectic schedules built around evening House sessions, select committees, acres of meetings, and whether there are regular flights between their home towns and Wellington.

Sitting days – held in fourweek blocks nowadays – usually start at 6am and end around 11pm. Lucky MPS can get home on Thursday night but some have to wait for Friday flights.

Mallard, the quasi-boss of Parliament, said it was important that as a workplace Parliament did its best to be flexible.

‘‘What’s important is that MPS bonding with their kids continues on as much as possible in what is a strange working environment,’’ Mallard explained.

East Coast Labour MP Kiri Allan’s child, Hiwa-i-te-rangi Allan-coates, arrived just before the election last year.

‘‘It was actually the prime minister who announced it. Because I was supposed to be appearing with her, so she had to explain that my new boss wanted to see me instead,’’ Allan said.

She brought Hiwa-i-te-rangi and wife Natalie down to Wellington with her for the first six months or so post-election, having the baby sitting with her in the House at one point.

This came as Mallard brought in something of a new era for babies in Parliament.

While it was unlikely that this was the first time a baby had entered the chamber – former National MP Katherine Rich says she breastfed there in 2002 – the image of Mallard holding two children in his seat heralded final clarification that babies would definitely not be considered ‘‘strangers’’ in the House.

‘‘The important early part for me was making clear that babies and young children are welcome into the chamber,’’ Mallard said.

‘‘If a baby cries, so what? MPS who are speaking in the House have lots of interruptions and they should be able to cope.’’

But there is little Mallard can do about MPS’ crazy schedules.

Allan’s child, Hiwa-i-te-rangi, now lives fulltime back home in Whakatane, in order to give her some stability and the ability to go to regular preschool.

Allan is one of the unlucky MPS who has to wait for a Friday flight home, so only really gets to spend weekends with her child during sitting weeks.

Even during two-week recess breaks, Allan says she gets ‘‘one week max’’ at home, as the life of a local MP in a large electorate means she has to travel over to Gisborne a lot.

‘‘During the recess, I try to have her with me. Sometimes I’ll be going to some pretty corporate meetings and there might be a baby on my hip. People get used to it,’’ Allan said.