New Zealand’s speaker feeds colleague’s baby during debate(video)

Images of Trevor Mallard, New Zealand’s parliamentary speaker, cradling a lawmaker’s baby as he presided over a debate have drawn praise on social media.

Trevor,on his Twitter page, shared a photo of himself feeding MP Tamati Coffey’s newborn son while in the speaker’s chair on Wednesday.

He captioned the snap: “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.”

The pictures have since been shared and liked hundreds of times, with many praising Mr Mallard for taking on the babysitting duties.

“New Zealand….you might be a small country, but you have a huge lesson to teach the world!”, one Twitter user said, while another added: “That is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in years.”

Mr Coffey’s son was born via a surrogate to him and his partner Tim Smith in July.

Other MPs also commended Mr Coffey for bringing the baby into the parliament chamber and shared an image of him holding his son.

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman wrote on Twitter: “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.”

“Lovely to have a baby in the House, and what a beautiful one,” said fellow Green Party MP Gareth Hughes.