Watch: Australian MP Nathan Lambert proposes to partner in Parliament
A politician from Australia's Victoria proposed to his partner amid a busy Parliament schedule. "I think we should get married," Victorian Labor MP Nathan Lambert told his partner Noah Erlich in Parliament, which led to joyful reactions from both sides of the chamber, a video shared by ABC News on Tuesday (March 7) showed.
“I won’t bring a ring out now, because I’m not allowed to have any props," Lambert said. “But it’s securely stored at the moment and I am planning in fact to bring it out very romantically tonight in the roughly 10 minutes between the kids falling asleep and us collapsing of exhaustion,” the MP added and his response was met with a huge round of applause.
Lambert, a father of two children, presented Erlich with a ring after his speech. “She said yes which was pretty great,” he said, according to a report by The Guardian.
Lambert represents the northern Melbourne electorate of Preston. He said he wanted to make the proposal special but but was unable to do so amid the Covid pandemic and parenting schedule, and so he decided to opt for making the gesture in the parliament.
“There were no French holidays planned or other things people might traditionally do. This seemed like the opportunity," he told The Guardian.
In 2017, Australian MP Tim Wilson proposed to his longtime partner Ryan Bolger (who was seated in the gallery) to marry him as the chamber was debating about legalising same-sex marriage. As per a report by NPR, Wilson said that the debate over same-sex marriage had been the soundtrack to "our relationship", and with Parliament moving to codify a change that was approved in a public referendum, "There's only one thing left to do: Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?"
Bolger accepted the proposal and the deputy speaker of the House said, "Congratulations; well-done mate."