West Australian MPs could soon be able to take their children into the Legislative Assembly to breast or bottle feed them under proposals to make State Parliament more family-friendly.
The state's Procedure and Privileges Committee has delivered a report calling for a trial allowing infants onto the floor of the House.
The ban on breastfeeding in Parliament has long been a source of contention both in WA and elsewhere, with the Federal Parliament overturning its ban on taking infants into the chamber to feed them last year.
Several female politicians have complained about the impact of the breastfeeding ban, with former Labor MP Laine McDonald using a 2016 speech to call for change to a rule she described as "antiquated".
Survey backs change
Committee member Lisa Baker, who presented the report to Parliament, said there had been strong support from MPs for the proposal.
Of the 45 Lower House MPs who responded to a survey question on the issue, 31 said they backed allowing members to bring children into the chamber for feeding.
"What matters most is that we have an environment and a workplace which is fair and equitable for all of us who come to this place," Ms Baker said.
Labor MP Amber-Jade Sanderson said the inability to bring her son, who was born in 2015, into the chamber had a significant impact.
"The hardest part was returning to work when my baby was a few weeks old and still breastfeeding and therefore expressing constantly," she said.
"He stopped breastfeeding because of that which is a point of great sadness for me.
"To have the option of having him in the chamber with me when he was very little, to be able to continue that breastfeeding, would've been an enormous assistance."
Ms Sanderson said allowing breastfeeding was one of a range of reforms needed, including making the parliament building more family-friendly and removing barriers within parties for women to enter politics.
Fellow Labor MP Jessica Stojkovski said allowing infants into the chamber would help young women to enter politics.
"I actually put off running for Parliament until I had my children, because I knew it would be very difficult to manage having a small child and being in Parliament," she said.
"Parliament has a very big role in being a leader in this space ... this is a good step in the right direction."
Parliament should be family-friendly
Deputy Premier Roger Cook said Parliament's traditional base meant it had some rules which did not meet modern standards, and has strongly backed the breastfeeding call.
"Time has come for parliaments to be much more family-friendly," Mr Cook said.
"I would like to see a modern parliament."
The committee also called for a series of other rule changes it said would make State Parliament more effective, including changing sitting hours to avoid too many late-night sessions.
It also proposed reducing the maximum length of many MPs' speeches inside Parliament, suggesting all the proposed rule changes be part of a 12-month trial.
