Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I welcome this debate today on dignity and respect, recognising the role of the Standards of Conduct Committee bringing us to this point where the whole Assembly has the opportunity to endorse the dignity and respect statement? I'm glad that you recognise this, Jayne Bryant, as Chair of the committee, as open for review and development, and learning from this debate and ongoing evidence to the committee. And as you said, it's a step in the right direction as a path towards meaningful change and our shared learning, of course, in this Assembly. I'm glad that the Llywydd has mentioned the training available, which I understand some of you have undertaken—awareness raising on dignity and respect. I hope we can secure cross-party agreement from all Assembly Members to take this up. That would be a real demonstration of commitment.

It's appropriate that we're debating this statement this week, following the statement made by Julie James yesterday on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and also the attention drawn by Jack Sargeant to Mental Health Awareness Week, when he said we must all work together to find solutions to help people suffering with mental health issues. All this is part of us learning and living the dignity and respect agenda here in this Assembly.

We know how much more we need to do on all fronts, as Vikki Howells has said—as individuals, as elected Members, as employers, we must make this a priority. I also think we can learn from other institutions like Cardiff University. It was good to hear from Gwyneth Sweatman from NUS Wales about how effective this new online system has been to enable students to report incidents of assault and violence—it has seen 101 student-reported incidents since last October. We can learn from those others, where we can see that this new online system has inspired confidence, confidence to enable people to report complaints, and that's what we need here.

I'm particularly concerned to support the statement in light of our need as an Assembly to be at the forefront of promoting equality of opportunity for all, with a kinder politics, free from discrimination, inappropriate behaviour and harassment. Mary Beard, in her 'Women and Power' manifesto, reminds us of opportunities that I believe we have here in the Assembly to change our political culture, so that we can be more proactive about the kind of Assembly we have here. She suggests that means thinking about power differently. It means decoupling it from public prestige. It means thinking collaboratively about the power of followers, not just leaders. What I have in mind is the ability to make a difference to the world, and the right to be taken seriously, together and as individuals.

Siân Gwenllian has helpfully suggested a national conversation on sexual harassment. Welsh Government is undertaking a gender review. We know from the #MeToo campaign that brave women have been speaking up around the world. As Catherine Fookes has said, the #MeToo campaign is empowering this. This is a time to move forward towards a society that is equal, and where women can be free of gratuitous sexism, or worse.