I rise to speak in this debate as chair of the National Assembly Labour group. The issues addressed in the report of the expert panel on Assembly electoral reform are matters not for the Government in the first instance, but for us as representatives of our political parties, and for our communities and parties more widely to consider. 

I would like to place on record the thanks of my party to Professor Laura McAllister for undertaking this substantial piece of work. The breadth of expertise of the panel members has ensured a detailed exploration of some very complex issues. They are issues that deserve full consideration and full consultation.

There are two areas in the report where we have existing policy. Firstly, Welsh Labour supports votes at 16, as was evident by the recent Welsh Government announcement to extend the franchise in local government elections. This was a commitment made in our 2016 manifesto and we support proposals to extend this to Assembly elections too. Secondly, Welsh Labour has a proud record of electing women in Wales. We have more women in this Senedd than any other party, making up over 50 per cent of our group. While it's taken Plaid Cymru 80 years to elect a woman to Parliament, and the Tories, to their shame, still have never elected a woman to the House of Commons from Wales, of the 11 Welsh women MPs, 10 of them are Labour. And it’s not just at Westminster and Cardiff Bay that Welsh Labour leads the way on this. In council chambers across Wales, Welsh Labour has more women representing their communities than any other party. In my own constituency of Cynon Valley over half of local councillors, and over half of Cynon Valley Labour councillors, are women.

But I don't want to get carried away. Positive mechanisms to increase the number of women have played a significant role and, in the process, are transforming my party. This has given a voice to women and helped to make this place a better, more constructive arena to debate the future of our country. All parties have a duty to ensure that they reflect the communities they seek to represent. It shouldn't take an expert panel to make that clear to anybody. Some of you will agree with the quotas as set out in the expert panel's report. Others won't. Whatever your view, I hope we can all agree that we need more women engaging in politics, standing in politics, and succeeding in politics. I don't want us to need quotas, but I especially don't want any party to think they can wait until they are mandated by law to take equal representation seriously.

Dirprwy Lywydd, 100 years ago some women were given the right to vote. It is within our grasp to give all women now a real voice, too. The Labour group has had an initial discussion on other areas of the report, and we will continue these. We will also feed into the consultation that our party has committed to during 2018 before reporting to our conference in 2019. Dirprwy Lywydd, to conclude, I would like to again thank the expert panel for their work and look forward to engaging in the conclusions from the Assembly Commission’s consultation.