By Stephanie Peatling
Labor MP Kate Ellis is pregnant with her second child, it was announced on Wednesday.
Ms Ellis announced her resignation from politics last week.
Her husband, media personality David Penberthy, made the announcement on his radio show this morning.
Ms Ellis confirmed the news to Fairfax Media on Wednesday, saying she and her husband were "happy and excited" to be expecting another child together.
Labor MP Kate Ellis with her son Samuel and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.Credit: Tim Dornin
Ms Ellis and Mr Penberthy together have three children - two from Mr Penberthy's first marriage - including a toddler who travels with Ms Ellis to Canberra when Parliament is sitting.
The frontbench MP said the pregnancy had played no role in her decision to announcer her retirement from federal politics last week.
"I was really honest last week about things," Ms Ellis said.
"Whether or not I was pregnant with this child made no impact on that decision."
Ms Ellis will leave politics at the next election after more than a decade in federal parliament.
She will also step down from the shadow ministry shortly, creating a vacancy in the early childhood education portfolio for Bill Shorten to fill, but will serve the remainder of this term and not force a byelection.
As she announced her decision to quit the seat of Adelaide last week - which she held at the 2016 election with a margin of 4.7 per cent - Ms Ellis re-opened debate about the pressures of juggling family life with the demands of federal politics for men and women.
"This is something that every member of parliament, whether they are a mother or a father, has to juggle and has to make decisions with their family about what works for them. Just today I have heard from many MPs or ex-MPs, male and female, who have had the same sort of pressures and some who wish they had made the same decision," Ms Ellis said at a press conference announcing her resignation.
"I would hate for my legacy to be sending a message that you can't be a young woman and go into federal parliament because I've made this choice."
Junior Liberal minister Alex Hawke, who has himself recently become a father again, tweeted he was sorry to see Ms Ellis quit and that "in 2017 more could get done in less sitting weeks if we modernised parliament. Vital for mum and dad MPs of [the] future".
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday he sympathised with Ms Ellis's decision.
"I spoke to Kate on the weekend and it is a tough choice she has made but ultimately every family has to make those calls," Mr Turnbull said.
"I just gave her my sympathy but sympathy in the sense of support and understanding and sorry to see you won't be running again. She has plenty of time, she could well do that [return to politics at a later date]."