Father of the House

Father or Mother of the House is an unofficial title applied to the longest-serving member of Parliament (MP) sitting in the New Zealand House of Representatives. In New Zealand, no duties or special distinctions are associated with the position. The current Father of the House is Gerry Brownlee, Member for Ilam, and the current Mother of the House is Nanaia Mahuta, member for Hauraki-Waikato. They have served continuously in the House of Representatives since 12 October 1996. The position is usually determined by continuous service, not aggregate time in parliament or the earliest year of entry. For example, Damien O'Connor has served as long as either Brownlee or Mahuta, and entered parliament a term earlier (in 1993), but since he lost his seat in 2008 he is not considered a joint Father of the House. When more than one MP have served equally long periods, the title is usually assigned to whoever was sworn in first, a process which happens alphabetically by surname. In New Zealand's first general election of , the electorate was the first to declare the election of a successful candidate, Hugh Carleton, who was returned unopposed. In the subsequent General Assembly of 1854, Carleton liked to be known as the Father of the House. In March 2005 then Prime Minister Helen Clark became the first to be dubbed Mother of the House.