Mick Antoniw: Thursday 28 March was the eightieth anniversary of one of the great heroic acts during the Spanish civil war. On that day, Welshman and Cardiffian Captain Archibald Dickson rescued and saved the lives of 2,638 men, women and children fleeing Spain and General Franco’s approaching fascist troops. A blockade of the port of Alicante by Italian destroyers and the threat of German bombers led to...
Mick Antoniw: Will the Minister make a statement on Welsh Government efforts to mark the contribution of Captain Archibald Dickson to Wales's international reputation?
Mick Antoniw: What consideration has the Welsh Government given to recovering costs of asbestos-related diseases through the Welsh tax system?
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Llywydd. Today is 1 May, International Workers' Day, and Sunday was international Workers' Memorial Day. On both of these dates, we recognise the contribution and sacrifice of working people across the world to our economy and society and their global struggle for social justice and equality. In Wales, this commemoration is particularly pertinent as we recall the sacrifice of life...
Mick Antoniw: So, with what you've said, why will Theresa May not sign up to the charter of fundamental rights? Why is she insistent that legislatively it is excluded from any link with Welsh workers' rights, UK workers' rights?
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for taking the intervention. I don't think anyone disagrees with the narrative you've given, but, in the format that clause is, do you accept that it is actually outside our legislative competence?
Mick Antoniw: Do you welcome that earlier this year the First Minister has given an outright, an absolute commitment to already introduce a social partnership Act and for the abolition of section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 and that that work is under way?
Mick Antoniw: Will you take an intervention?
Mick Antoniw: I was just wondering—presumably, though, you do very much welcome the commitment of the First Minister to introduce a social partnership Act, and you're more than prepared to give support and to work with the Government, and all parties, in fact, to ensure that we deliver a social partnership Act this session.
Mick Antoniw: I'm very glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, this year being the thirtieth anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the legacy of which continues to remain with us, and we perhaps have in mind all the other potential Chernobyls that exist in nuclear power stations that are centred around conflict zones in various parts of the world. My concern is not so much in...
Mick Antoniw: Will you take an intervention?
Mick Antoniw: 2. Will the First Minister make a statement on EU funding for Wales? OAQ53823
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, First Minister, and we can look around many constituencies where we see very important infrastructure and other projects that benefited the people of Wales as a result of EU funding. Funding is worth around £650 million a year to Wales. That means that, over a five-year-term, £3.25 billion comes into Wales. And, as yet, we have no long-term guarantee from the Tories. The Wales...
Mick Antoniw: Can I first of all welcome what is a very timely and a very comprehensive report on fair work? I think at a time when the two great challenges within our society and globally, really, are that of emergency climate change and the need to tackle that, but also the other great destabilising social factor, and that is the inequality of wealth and income—. And, in the UK, 60 per cent of all...
Mick Antoniw: 2. Will the First Minister make a statement on the support available to haemophiliacs and their families in Wales? OAQ53881
Mick Antoniw: First Minister, you will recognise, as most of us here do, that the contaminated blood scandal is one of the great and terrible scandals that's occurred—admittedly, well before devolution, but one where there is a legacy with us to this day. You'll also be pleased, I'm sure, to welcome the commencement, at long last, of the contaminated blood inquiry, which has started to take place. And...
Mick Antoniw: Minister, I'd like to refer specifically to the part of the report in the annex that is dealing with the progress that's been made in respect of the public health issue that's been raised with regard to gambling. I raise it because last year's report was a groundbreaking report and has been recognised throughout the UK in identifying and starting the process of looking at how we tackle what...
Mick Antoniw: What is happening at the moment is mere peanuts and I don't think the strategy we have at the moment is a strategy or in any way adequate to deal with what we could, potentially, be doing.
Mick Antoniw: Minister, for many years young people have been discriminated against in employment. Would you welcome the commitment by the Labour Party now to end that discrimination against 16 to 18-year-olds so they will be paid the rate for the job not a rate attributable to their age, and end this long-standing injustice young people have had to face in the workplace?
Mick Antoniw: Minister, I've heard a lot of huffing and puffing on this and I think it's perhaps time for a little bit of perspective on this. This is a judgment that's based purely on the papers submitted for a preliminary application for a judicial review. It's not a binding judgment, it does not set any particular precedent, but there are one or two particular points in it that are quite important. It...
