mobanmarketAuckland: New Zealand’s parliament speaker is perhaps better practised at quieting MPs than calming babies, but images of the powerful politician doing exactly that went viral this week.
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Trevor Mallard, the speaker of the country’s House of Representatives, was filmed bottle-feeding and calming the one-month-old son of a fellow politician on Wednesday.
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Mallard later shared the images, tweeting: “Today a VIP took the chair with me.”
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The photographs and film went viral, with many praising the high-ranking politician.
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Tutanekai Smith-Coffey is the son of Labour MP Tamati Coffey, who returned to parliament that day after his paternity leave, and who tweeted: “I JUST LOVE HIM!!”
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Tutanekai is the biological son of his partner, Tim Smith, and was born by surrogate.
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Other MPs obviously enjoyed the newborn’s visit to parliament too.
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Green party politician Golriz Ghahraman tweeted: “Who needs to see this today? Every single last one of us, that’s who.”
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“Lovely to have a baby in the House, and what a beautiful one,” said Gareth Hughes, another Green MP.
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In July, Coffey tweeted his joy at his son’s birth, writing: “Mum doing awesome. Dads overwhelmed at the miracle of life.”
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Fathers can currently enjoy 22 weeks of paid paternity leave, but under changes introduced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern, it will be extended to 26 weeks next year.
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Ardern made similar headlines after giving her maiden speech to the United Nations accompanied by her newborn daughter Neve Te Aroha in 2018.
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