New Zealand Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard has once again shown his love for children, embracing a six-week-old baby and feeding him while chairing a parliamentary session yesterday.
As MPs debated high fuel prices and defense strategies, Malader took care of the son of Labor MP Tamati Kofi and his wife, Tim Smith, who was born of a surrogate mother in July and sits on his seat as speaker of parliament.
He later wrote a tweet beside a photo: "Usually sitting in the seat of the speaker of the parliament holders of this position, but today shares an important guest in sitting on this chair." It is not the first time Mallard, who has six grandchildren, shares his chair with a baby. Henny, daughter of Willow Jan Prem, received the same treatment in 2017, after she made headlines for breastfeeding her baby in the parliament room.
Kofi told local news site Hub that he felt he was receiving "support from all his colleagues in parliament." "Children have a way to calm the severe climate in parliament. I think we need more of them around us to remind us of the main reason we are in parliament," he said.
Mallard has been speaker of parliament since 2017 and has since made parliament a friendlier place for families. Mallard allowed infants to enter parliament and opened more facilities for deputies with children. A stadium in parliament is scheduled to open later this year.
Mallard: Children have a way to calm the severe climate in parliament. I think we need more of them around us to remind us of the main reason we are in parliament.