A furious Ms O'Dwyer, who is Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, took the issue up with Mr Buchholz in person. Kelly O'Dwyer with her daughter Olivia and Labor MP Amanda Rishworth with her son Percy. Credit:Andrew Meares The Member for Higgins refused to be drawn on the issue on Thursday, but said the matter had been sorted out. "The whole issue is resolved," Ms O'Dwyer told Sky. "And I think the greatest take out here is that women can do both jobs, and that is a very powerful message that I want to send other women."

Under a 2003 exemption Australian senators are allowed to breastfeed in Parliament, however this rule does not apply in the House of Representatives, where nursing MPs are instead covered by rarely used rules that grant proxy votes. Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer at Parliament House on Thursday September 17. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But Labor leader Bill Shorten said the incident had exposed the lower house's "archaic conventions" and called for them to be updated. "Women MPs should be able to breastfeed wherever and whenever they want - that includes on the floor of the Parliament," Mr Shorten told Fairfax Media. "Women should have the option of using the current proxy voting arrangements or bringing their child onto the floor of the Parliament," he said.

"I want more women in Parliament and a big part of that is ensuring it's a family-friendly workplace," he said. Women MPs should be able to breastfeed wherever and whenever they want - that includes on the floor of the Parliament. Bill Shorten The Minister assisting the Minister for Women Michaelia Cash said nursing mothers were adequately catered for under the lower house's proxy vote rules. "The government supports family friendly workplaces," she said. "It is important that the Parliamentary Standing Orders allow members who are breastfeeding to do this."

"I am pleased that the Standing Orders recognise this and contain "special provisions for nursing mothers" that allow them to be proxied when the division bells ring". It is unlikely that many MPs would choose to breastfeed in the Parliament where they are filmed and photographed if they can feed in the privacy of their offices and still be counted. Ms O'Dwyer is one of three women, including Labor frontbenchers Kate Ellis and Amanda Rishworth who have given birth to their first children this year and are subsequently juggling babies as well as their political careers. The issue of gender has become a prominent one in Canberra, even since Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister. It is particularly sensitive in the Coalition given former Prime Minister Tony Abbott only included one woman in his first cabinet and two in his second.

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to promote more women and possibly Ms O'Dwyer into his revamped cabinet, due to be announced this weekend. But his own credentials are coming into question, following a damaging cabinet leak that shows he was the worst performing minister in the Abbott government in appointing women to boards. Representation of women in Parliament The Labor party has 45% (44 men, 36 women)

The Coalition has 21% (93 men, 26 women) (Liberal Party: 79 men, 23 women = 22.5% women

(Nationals: 14 men, 3 women = 14.3% women)