CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promoted family values on his way to winning office in November, but now the mother of his health minister is pleading with him to give her daughter time off to get married.
"I just need to tell you Nicola will need two weeks off some time this year if she is ever going to get married," Roxon's mother Lesley told Rudd at a ministerial swearing-in, local newspapers said on Thursday.
On winning office for Labour, after a decade of conservative rule, Rudd ordered his team back to work the next day.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon, a rising star for centre-left Labour, wants to marry her longtime partner, with whom she has a two-year-old daughter.
But reform of Australia's health system is a major priority for the new Rudd government and Roxon is caught in negotiations on a A$50 billion (22 billion pounds) health agreement with Australia's six states, due for completion mid-year.
Rudd reportedly told Roxon's mother that his minister "should be able to get a weekend off" to tie the knot.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080124/...0bSFhPhWKdk3QF
Minister's mum begs Australia PM for time to get wed 
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