Politics

Larissa Waters Is The First Person To Breastfeed While Giving A Speech In Parliament

What a legend.

by Chris Woods  22 June 2017
Larissa Waters

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Co-Deputy Leader of the Greens and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters has had a busy year.

In between fighting against the Adani-Carmichael coal mine, the government’s blatantly sexist tampon tax, and profiteering off domestic violence, Waters gave birth to her second child, Alisa Joy, and made history as the first Australian politician to breastfeed in Federal Parliament.

Now, she’s made history again as the first person to breastfeed their child while giving a speech to Parliament.

Waters’ motion asked that the Senate acknowledge Queensland Parliament’s recent Black Lung, White Lies report about administrative failings for coal workers with black lung disease.

This comes just a week after One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts attacked the Greens’ opposition to Adani, arguing that black lung disease is, “a threat to anyone who does not manage his or her workplace properly… [but no] longer a problem where coal mines are ventilated properly.”

Waters’ speech was a great moment, and a far cry from the incident that triggered the end of Parliament’s archaic rule: then-chief government whip Scott Buchholz telling Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer to “express more breastmilk” to make a vote in 2015.

“I am so proud that my daughter Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the Federal Parliament,” Waters said back in May. “We need more women and parents in Parliament. And we need more family-friendly and flexible workplaces, and affordable childcare, for everyone.”

Unsurprisingly, everyone who wasn’t a misogynistic dirtbag was pretty stoked about today’s first:

And Christ, after a week full of inter-party fighting and weird attacks on kids with disabilities, isn’t it just nice to have nice political news?