Rhys ab Owen: The stark warning from the chair of the Environment Agency in England is 'adapt or die', and we all know there is no Offa's Dyke when it comes to climate emergency. But we need to find Welsh solutions here for global realities. To do so, we need the control. We need the levers to make a real difference. Improvements in our constitutional arrangement have been frozen by the Tory Government in...
Rhys ab Owen: To tackle this crisis, the Welsh Government must seek the devolution of full energy powers. The Welsh Government should govern Welsh resources for the people of Wales and for the environmental and economic benefit of Wales, today and for the future.
Rhys ab Owen: We cannot allow yet again the resources of Wales to be exploited by others. Over a decade ago in this place, Leanne Wood said this: 'During the height of the coal industry, enormous profits were generated from the natural resources of Wales yet almost all of the money bled out of the country and lined the pockets of people elsewhere.'
Rhys ab Owen: We cannot allow this to happen again.
Rhys ab Owen: Wales can produce the power we need from renewable sources and export energy across the world. From this place, the port of Cardiff, global Wales, international Wales, exported coal to the four corners of the world. We can be a powerhouse yet again. What we cannot do is to wait and wait for meagre handouts from a disinterested Westminster Government. As seen in the future ports report,...
Rhys ab Owen: Having been shocked by the progress made by the SNP after the independence referendum, the Crown Estate was devolved in Scotland, but the so-called voice of Wales in the Cabinet, Simon Hart, is against that; Wales isn't good enough for those powers, according to him. But the figures are striking. Listen to these: 27 per cent of Welsh energy comes from renewables, as compared to 61 per cent in...
Rhys ab Owen: The Crown Estate's control of our seabed, let alone large tracts of our land, means that Wales is losing out on a green goldrush that is currently benefiting Scotland, and this is the same thing that's happened across the centuries. And that's the irony of the UK's neoliberal energy market—state-backed energy companies from across Europe are taking advantage of Wales's resources and are...
Rhys ab Owen: Instead of the lack of ambition of Westminster, we need to secure the powers to power Wales. And I will finish with this point.
Rhys ab Owen: If we are to maximise our renewable potential, we must do so with our own two feet and our own two hands; we cannot rely on others, especially a disinterested Westminster Government. The resources of Wales should be governed by the Government of Wales—
Rhys ab Owen: —for the people of Wales, for the future generations of Wales.
Rhys ab Owen: It's as simple as that. Thank you.
Rhys ab Owen: Brif Weinidog, a young man with complex mental health issues contacted me recently and praised the work of the Ty Canna day centre within your Cardiff West constituency. For those in the Siambr who don't know, Ty Canna provides transitional services for people transitioning from children's services to adult services. And this work is crucial; as we know, far too many people fall between the...
Rhys ab Owen: A senior political lecturer in Cardiff University—not Professor Laura McAllister, I hasten to add—told me at the time of the establishment of the Commission on Justice in Wales that establishing commissions is fast becoming a national sport in Wales. I heard earlier this afternoon cries of 'waste of time' from the opposition benches—the benches opposite me. Well, let's have a...
Rhys ab Owen: The commissions of the past were not a waste of time. They have led to the strengthening of this place and have improved the lives of the people of Wales. I'm sure that Rowan Williams is very familiar with preaching with three different topics; may I remind you of three previous commissions? First of all, Lord Richard's commission on better governance. Now, this led to the Government of Wales...
Rhys ab Owen: You'll remember the old phrase, 'The Anglican church is the Conservative Party at prayer.' Well, perhaps the appointment of a former Archbishop of Canterbury will make sure that you over there will finally listen.
Rhys ab Owen: Plaid Cymru looks forward to working constructively with the commission. The First Minister said today that he will take all possible opportunities to push radical federalism. Well, I will tell you now that we will take all possible opportunities to push for independence, because in the words of the old saying, 'There never lived a nation that ruled another well.' It's true across the world,...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch, Weinidog. I'm sure everyone here has been contacted by somebody who has been impacted by the cuts in universal credit. I wanted to give one example: a Mrs D who contacted me recently. She said this, 'Last March, I was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer. Overnight, I went from an independent, self-sufficient woman, counting the years to retirement, to a house-bound unemployable...
Rhys ab Owen: Thank you, Llywydd. Counsel General, many of us here are very concerned about the significant increase in the number of Bills that the UK Government is trying to pass in devolved areas. Many on those benches will be familiar with the verse, 'He that hath ears, let him hear.' Well, listen to this on the Conservative benches: in the fourth Senedd, there were eight legislative consent memoranda;...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr. I want to stay with the legislative consent motions. I want to quote some wise words to you, Counsel General. They were written in March 2021, by the then chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, in a letter to the environment Minister. These are the words: 'The arguments you have put forward to support the UK Parliament and UK Government legislating in...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr. And finally, you've touched on my last question already—those comments by Dominic Raab to change the Human Rights Act 1998 to allow some sort of a mechanism so that Ministers can correct court judgments. Now, Counsel General, do you agree with me that Dominic Raab must have forgotten one of his first constitutional lectures at university, because this goes to the very heart...
