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 position is usually determined by continuous service, not aggregate time in parliament. When more than one MP have served equally long periods, the title is assigned to whomever was sworn in first, a process which happens alphabetically by surname. In March 2005 then Prime Minister Helen Clark became the first to be dubbed Mother of the House.