World | Australia
Row over toddler's expulsion from Australian Senate
Member took two-year-old to vote after failing to find a staffer to look after child.
- AP
- Published: 23:52 June 19, 2009
Canberra: The ejection from Australia's Senate of a lawmaker's two-year-old daughter, who subsequently screamed in distress, ignited a national debate on Friday about whether parents should take their children to work.
First-time mother Senator Sarah Hanson-Young couldn't find a staffer to look after her daughter Kora while she voted in the Senate late on Thursday, so she took the toddler into the chamber with her. The child played quietly for several minutes before Senate President John Hogg ordered her ejected. Kora screamed in distress as a Senate staffer took her from her mother's arms and out the Senate door.
"We can't allow children to be in here for a division," Hogg told Hanson-Young, referring to the vote.
Senate rules allow senators to nurse infants in the chambers, but otherwise only senators and attendants are permitted inside. The parliament opened its first childcare centre this year.
The incident dominated morning news broadcasts.
Callers to ABC Canberra talk radio overwhelmingly opposed children being allowed into the Senate, except when they are being nursed.
"It is a place of business and it's very important that we have people there who are attending" to Senate business, said a working mother of three named Ann.
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