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Crying toddler prompts Australia parliament re-think
2009-06-19 17:18:24

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian senator whose crying toddler was ejected from parliament during a political vote has prompted a review of chamber rules and sparked a heated debate over child-friendly work practices.

Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she was "humiliated" when Senate President John Hogg ordered her teary 2-year-old daughter removed from the parliamentary chamber before a vote, in accordance with parliamentary rules.

"It shows that parliament is still based on a very male model and I just think it's absolutely ridiculous," said Women's Electoral Lobby Chairwoman Eva Cox.

Hogg said he was responsible for "proper conduct" in the upper house, but supported a review of rules which bar children and other outsiders from the Senate during votes.

The Senate leader of the conservative Nationals party Barnaby Joyce said Hanson-Young had staged a stunt and could have avoided being caught out during a locked-door vote, with bells alerting all lawmakers beforehand.

"Within that Senate are votes for things that might send people to war, that might get people killed. This requires certain sacrifices," Joyce said. "The child is a prop and the Senate has become a stage."

Greens Leader Bob Brown said he would push for the Senate's procedures to be changed to give parents more flexibility.

Hanson-Young said the four minutes apart from her daughter Kora, who was placed in the care of a staffer, were "longest few minutes I've ever had."

She won backing from a lawmaker in Victoria state who was ejected from parliament several years ago for breastfeeding a child in parliamentary chamber.

"I think it's just ludicrous. She was required in her capacity in her job as a senator to vote, therefore she was being denied that opportunity based on the fact she had some responsibilities as a parent," Kirstie Marshall said.

But a television poll of public opinion found most people had little sympathy, with 88 percent of respondents backing Hogg's exclusion order.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Blah Blah Blah the Senator's desire to have her child in the chamber is suspect as political grandstanding to create this incident. I'm all for day care facilities on site at work but the idea that all the others in chamber should have to listen to a screaming toddler as they try to conduct the nation's business is absurd. I resent a screaming child in a restaurant or movie I can't imagine trying to debate while one wails beside me, no reasonable person would suggest that a demolitions expert should have their toddler by their side as they go about their work, or a police officer, nor an infantry soldier... lets just face the fact that there are places where screaming children aren't welcome & some places children just don't belong even the quiet ones. The assertion that the Senator couldn't vote because her child had to leave the room is ludicrous, I'm no authority on Aussie politics but Senators in the US even State Senators have staffers that could hold a child for a few minutes while mommy votes. It seems to me that Senator Hanson-Young needs to put her priorities in order, if that was truly the longest few minutes of her life, longer than her birthing the child, longer than waiting for the pregnancy test to show results, longer than the counting of the ballots during her election, longer than the walk up the aisle at her wedding, really the very longest minutes of her life? Who was the staffer Adolph Hitler, if you trust your staff that little maybe you shouldn't be trusted with the fate of a nation.
    Posted by: Munkyman on 2009-10-15 15:57:46  
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