Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. As you’ve heard, there is strong support for the Bill in the Assembly this afternoon. I thank John Griffiths for what I thought was a succinct summary of the evidence that his committee took. In each aspect of the Bill, there was overwhelming support, as he said, from stakeholders for a simple and effective Bill. Members have heard from Gareth Bennett, who sat through the evidence and who was convinced enough by it to sign up to that simple, clear conclusion of the committee that the Bill should be supported.

Wrth gwrs, rydw i’n cydnabod cefnogaeth Plaid Cymru, fel roedd Sian Gwenllian yn ei ddweud, i’n helpu ni i ddiogelu hawliau gweithwyr yma yng Nghymru ac i roi tegwch yn y gweithlu i bobl sy’n gweithio yn ein gwasanaethau cyhoeddus yma yng Nghymru.

Dirprwy Lywydd, you heard from other Members here explaining that the purpose of this Bill is to support the success we have had in Wales in developing a social partnership approach. Jeremy Miles was absolutely right when he said that the social partnership approach is not about the absence of dispute; it is about the much, much harder work of facing up to challenges, to get round the table together, to think through, to talk through, to argue through and, in the end, to reach an agreement on a way forward where the problem itself is difficult and where the solution is not easy to find, but social partnership demands that you do that hard work, rather than, as in the way that we’ve heard from the Conservatives here this afternoon—they would rather retreat behind the barricades of a socially divisive confrontation of an adversarial approach to the conduct of industrial relations.

What this Bill does, Dirprwy Lywydd, quite certainly, is that it exposes the Conservative Party here in Wales. It exposes them as the reactionary force they are when it comes to social partnership. There is a Pavlovian response—there is a Pavlovian response from the Welsh Conservative Party. You mention the words ‘trade unions’, and they immediately begin to salivate over battles long ago. Time after time, in this Chamber, I’ve had to listen to Conservative Party Members talk about the heroic efforts of public service workers here in Wales, while they seek to condemn the services that those people provide, yet when those people turn out to be trade unionists, they go from being heroes of public service to people against whom the public at large have to be guarded against the dangers that they pose. Well, that is an argument that will not pass muster on the floor of this Assembly.

The second reason why the Bill exposes the Conservative Party, and I thought this was an authentically shocking part of the one contribution we heard from the Conservative Party, is that it exposes them on the devolution issue as well. This is a Bill that is being taken through the democratically elected forum of Wales. It is a Bill that seeks to do things in our public services in the way in which we in Wales would choose to organise our affairs, and yet the Conservative Party is willing to wave the stick of a Westminster Government prepared to reverse the democratic will of this National Assembly. I think there will be a democratic outrage, should it take place, and I’m very disappointed and saddened to hear it being suggested on the floor of the National Assembly this afternoon. Instead, this small, but important Bill will do things in the way that we want to do them here in Wales—a way that we know is effective; a way that we know will save money, will stop strikes, will protect the public and will improve our public services because it will use the enormous reservoir of goodwill and effective action that trade unionists in all parts of our public services bring to the work that they do, making the contribution they make: a contribution recognised by employers, recognised by social partners, recognised by other parties here in the Chamber this afternoon, and I hope will be reflected in the vote that we will hold on it.