Daniel Wallis, 26, was jailed for three years and three months after admitting a charge of manslaughter.
He was initially charged with murder after he smacked his five-month-old, premature baby Hope Elizabeth Wallis McFall-Schultz in the head multiple times, causing her death.
Last month, the Parole Board said Wallis should continue working with a psychologist to gain insight into his offending.
"He is understanding why the issues he felt with his baby daughter were actually issues," the decision said.
The board said Wallis needed to "firm up" his safety plan and discuss it with his whanau.
The inmate was sentenced to prison in August last year when the court heard harrowing details of the fatal assault.
On January 21, 2022, one month after baby Hope was released from hospital, Wallis was at home alone with her.
He called Hope’s grandmother figure, and explained the baby would not stop crying.
Later, in a frantic video-call, he told the woman he had dropped Hope, and within five minutes said she was not breathing.
When the woman arrived, she saw Hope was unresponsive, limp, pale and bleeding from her nose.
She rushed her to the hospital while Wallis cleaned the scene.
The defendant initially claimed his baby had wriggled out of his arms while he was trying to feed her and landed head first on a bottle on the floor.
He saw she was bleeding from her mouth and possibly her nose.
The sight of the blood made him vomit in the sink, accidentally hitting Hope’s head on the bench, he said.
A post mortem revealed his daughter’s head injuries did not match the explanation Wallis had given, and he later admitted he had smacked Hope’s head up to three times.
Hope was initially resuscitated, but died due to complications from her head injuries days later.
The Parole Board said Wallis needed to complete the work recommended by a psychologist before he could be released.
"Wallis spoke well to the Board and talked about his offence mapping and what was going on for him at the time of the offending," the decision noted.
Wallis’s next parole hearing is in March, and his statutory release date is August 15, 2026.
