Giulia Jones made history on Tuesday by breastfeeding her baby during Question Time, with not a murmur of dissent nor evidently a raised eyebrow among the other ACT politicians.
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Mrs Jones' fifth child, Maximus, is three-and-a-half months old, and she returned to work last week determined to lead the way in baby-friendly workplaces.
"I want to see more workplaces where women are accepted with their babies," she said. "How can we possibly call ourselves an advanced society if we put women away into some shadow and ask them to look after babies in a secret sort of a way. Babies are something to be celebrated. They are our future. And from a very practical perspective they're the future taxpayers."
Maximus is demand fed and when Mrs Jones brought him into the Chamber at Question Time, he settled quickly.
"If he needs feeding and I'm in the chamber then I'll feed him," she said. "That's my commitment to him: if he's hungry he will be fed."
She is also feeding him during party room meetings, with her colleagues understanding "the importance of women achieving and achieving family as well".
"I just keep on feeding and we keep on chatting. And this is how life needs to be."
She had intended to return to work earlier but Maximus had breathing issues as a result of a bent larynx so she stayed home longer. She plans to bring Maximus to work until he's about six months old, when she will wean him and he will spend more time at home with the family au pair.
Mrs Jones breastfed one of her babies while she was a staffer in Tony Abbott's office, but in that case went to a nearby lounge to feed. At the ACT Assembly, she has set up her office with couch, screen and bassinet.
As for issues of modesty, Mrs Jones says every woman feels differently about breastfeeding in public.
"If I was at a very formal meeting with people I didn't know, I would probably feel that I had to put a shawl on my shoulder and I've done it before. But it's much more comfortable and it's faster to put them [a baby] on and take them off it you don't. So when I'm around people that I already know I don't feel that I need to do that.
"And you know, you are walking a bit of a tightrope, but I think it's worth doing. It's worth doing for his benefit, for my benefit and for the society's benefit."
Mrs Jones is the first politician to breastfeed in the ACT parliamentary chamber, which changed its standing orders to specifically allow it after Kirstie Marshall was thrown out of the Victorian parliament for breastfeeding in 2003.
Katy Gallagher breastfed her two youngest children at work, including in cabinet meetings, departmental briefings and other meetings, but not in the chamber.
