Lee Waters: Cabinet Secretary, when you do the same thing, you expect the same results, and, as my friend Dawn Bowden has just mentioned, when you allow shopping developments on road-based developments, you're going to get more traffic. I note from your statement that the Welsh Government is anticipating a 150 per cent increase in demand in transport over the next 17 years or so. Are you considering how...
Lee Waters: Beautifully put.
Lee Waters: Will you give way?
Lee Waters: Just to help you on this point, the Public Accounts Committee has recently written to the Permanent Secretary on this very point, asking for an intellectual honesty from the Government—when they genuinely don't agree with the point, to say so and give the reasons why. And we've had a letter back this week from the Permanent Secretary saying that the Government will do that, so we need to...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. Yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary told the Assembly that demand for public transport is predicted to grow by 150 per cent in the next 13 years. If that’s correct, then it's vital that we make the investment now to ensure that there's an attractive alternative to car use in place. Evidence from the most successful cities around the world, where public transport is thriving,...
Lee Waters: Will the Minister give way?
Lee Waters: Would you address the specific point about the need to empower Transport for Wales with the powers of a development corporation to lever in this added value that will be created?
Lee Waters: Work in progress.
Lee Waters: Would the Member give way? Thank you. In terms of the cross-valley links, it's integral to the metro thinking that we include active travel, because the old network of railway tunnels—the Rhondda Tunnel is the most talked about, but there's a whole network of these across the Valleys, which, for active travel in particular, could make inter-valley journeys a practical option.
Lee Waters: Will the Member give way?
Lee Waters: Would you accept that an effective way to reduce the number of deaths on the road is to reduce the amount of traffic and reduce the number of cars on the road?
Lee Waters: It's my birthday in a month's time, and it's often a fairly depressing experience as you get older, because you just assume that your youthful expectations of never-ending progress where people respond to evidence and experience will be an ever onward trajectory. But this debate this afternoon calls those assumptions into question. I was listening to Desert Island Discs earlier and Charlie...
Lee Waters: First Minister, because of Welsh Government investment, there's no doubt that thousands of households across the Llanelli constituency now have access to superfast broadband. But in the community of Bynea, just outside of Llanelli, they've been treated appallingly by BT Openreach. They were told they'd have access by the end of the year, they've appalling speeds, and just before Christmas...
Lee Waters: Cabinet Secretary, there is some very useful, high-level analysis some very useful, high-level analysis in the report, but I think what's most helpful are the detailed recommendations in the annex section, in particular recommendation 7, on innovation, technology and infrastructure. I was very pleased to see the role of digital woven right throughout the report, and its potential to release...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Dirprwy Llywydd. 'And we will build brutal energy cut into a much better home. It's a movement towards the beautiful legal scams and better share. And it was a gingelly deal, and I don't think they're never worth in a middle deal to be parted to Mexico.' Not the most inspiring opening to a speech, I'll admit, but what sets this opening apart is what sets this debate apart. It was...
Lee Waters: It's that scale of profound change that we're on the cusp of again. Right now, we're in the early adopter stages of the artificial intelligence revolution, but we can discern an outline of the type of change that’s ahead of us. I was blown away by the robot who was able to cook a meal by just being shown a 'how to cook' video on YouTube without any direct human input. Researchers at the...
Lee Waters: Apologies. I am unfamiliar with the rules of these debates, too. In education, for example, we need to ensure that we’re preparing young people for roles that do not yet exist, and we need to be mindful that many of these changes are coming in the next 10 to 20 years. I don’t know about you, but I still hope to be gainfully employed in my fifties. We must think about training for those...
Lee Waters: Nobody has indicated, but I'm happy to offer a minute if anybody wishes.
Lee Waters: 6. Will the First Minister establish a unit to explore how Wales can harness artificial intelligence and automation? OAQ51639
Lee Waters: Thank you, First Minister. I welcome the fact that the new economic action plan includes, as one of the criteria for supporting new businesses, adapting to automation, but the implications of automation go way beyond that. It's estimated that some 700,000 jobs are at risk, and they hit upon every single portfolio. So, would you now look at how you can co-ordinate efforts by establishing a...
