Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:47 pm on 7 February 2018.
Well, I'm not in the business of voting down the budgets of a Labour Government, so that's why I want to de-couple this issue. This motion today is about the financing. I want a separate motion before this Assembly, after the public inquiry has reported, before Ministers make their decisions, on the principle of the road, not explicitly about the financing, but on the principle of the road. That's what I would like Ministers to consider, so that's why I won't be able to support the words of the motion today, even though I support the force of it.
So, I hope Ministers will listen to the strength of feeling that there is on this issue. I'm not interested in being part of Plaid Cymru's parlour games, but I am in the business of trying to shift transport policy in our country, because we have become wedded to predict and provide, and we've cast aside the principle of modal shift. And that, in the principle of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 that we have passed, should be the project that we concentrate on for the years to come.
Therefore, I shall be supporting the Government this afternoon, but I'm opposed to the road, nonetheless. The Plaid position, the Tory position, is in flux and they're more interested in game playing on this. I remember sharing platforms—[Interruption.] Leanne Wood, as ever, is showing a lack of dignity in all her heckles. I remember sharing platforms with Leanne Wood, arguing against roads as a way of tackling social justice, and we hear from her, 'Let's put hundreds of millions into a blue route instead', or Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'Hundreds of millions into other road-building schemes across Wales.' I want a change of policy to honour what you and I both agreed on at that time, Leanne Wood. Shame you've changed your position to play games. I'm not in that game.