New Zealand Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard Cradles MP Tamati Coffey’s Baby Throughout Debate

Aug 27, 2019 by apost team

New Zealand senior official Trevor Mallard kindly took over daddy duties for his colleague Tamati Coffey who had just come back from paternity leave. Not wanting to interrupt the flow of government nor keep a child hungry, Mallard fed Coffey's newborn Tūtānekai while simultaneously presiding over a debate.

The little baby is barely a month old and came into the world via surrogate to MP Tamati Coffey and his partner Tim Smith on July 10. The dads tweeted that they were "overwhelmed at the miracle of life" and that mom was doing fine. When it was time to go back to work, Coffey took his baby with him.

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It was the first time back to a parliamentary debate since Coffey's baby was born, reports the BBC, and like any office, colleagues were smitten. MP Gareth Hughes tweeted out a photo with the caption "Lovely to have a baby in the House, and what a beautiful one @tamaticoffey." Even the speaker of the house Trevor Mallard was taken by the adorable baby and he took the time to feed and cradle him. 

Mallard tweeted out photos of himself with Tūtānekai with a sweet congratulations to his colleague. As a father of three, he was relaxed and comfortable feeding the baby while also mediating the heated debate that was occurring at the time.

Congratulations to Tim and Tamati on the birth of their baby boy! What do you think about Trevor Mallard helping out to feed the baby? Is it a good idea to bring new babies into chambers? Sound off in the comments below.