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AUCKLAND, New Zealand – New Zealand’s parliament speaker is perhaps better practiced at quieting members of parliament (MPs) than calming babies, but images of the powerful politician doing exactly that went viral this week.
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, August 21.
Mallard later shared the images, tweeting, “Today a VIP took the chair with me.”
Normally the Speaker’s chair is only used by Presiding Officers but today a VIP took the chair with me. Congratulations @tamaticoffey and Tim on the newest member of your family. pic.twitter.com/47ViKHsKkA
The photographs and film went viral, with many praising the high-ranking politician.
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!!”
Tutanekai is the biological son of his partner, Tim Smith, and was born by surrogate.
At 6 weeks old, Tūtānekai Smith-Coffey had his 5 minutes of fame in the #NZParliament this week, and it all went a bit viral @TIME Thanks @SpeakerTrevor.
I hear we’ve got a date on @GMB this evening? Is that @piersmorgan? #nzpol pic.twitter.com/D9aCngPNIE
Other MPs obviously enjoyed the newborn’s visit to parliament too.
Green party politician Golriz Ghahraman tweeted: “Who needs to see this today? Every single last one of us, that’s who.”
Who needs to see this today? Every single last one of us, that’s who. Here’s a brand new papa holding his new born in our House of Representatives right now pic.twitter.com/NU00SHfKFT
“Lovely to have a baby in the House, and what a beautiful one,” said Gareth Hughes, another Green MP.
Lovely to have a baby in the House, and what a beautiful one @tamaticoffey pic.twitter.com/EP6iP9eQES
In July, Coffey tweeted his joy at his son’s birth, writing: “Mum doing awesome. Dads overwhelmed at the miracle of life.”
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.
Ardern made similar headlines after giving her maiden speech to the United Nations accompanied by her newborn daughter Neve Te Aroha in 2018. – Rappler.com
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