I'd very much like to congratulate Julie Morgan and, indeed, Chris Chapman, for their really resilient work in keeping going on what was a very unpopular issue, and some of the scars on your back are from Members of our own party as well as from wider members of society. It's wonderful to see you introducing this legislation here today.

Becoming a parent doesn't come with instructions and it's our job to promote society's responsibilities towards all our children, whether we are parents or not. Of course, that starts with the UK Government, whose deplorable reduction in the value of child benefit and child related tax credits and benefits over the last nine years has plunged even more children into poverty. But this is another way in which we can support those children who are most in need of society's help.

One of the most vocal opponents of this piece of legislation is my constituent. I can find no reason to suppose that she isn't a completely excellent and caring mother, but I am simply not persuaded by her arguments that she needs to be able to smack her children in order to keep them safe. I've explained that I cannot find any evidence that smacking is anything other than harmful to a child. We have to remember that the child is defenceless, unable to assert their rights and entirely dependent on adults for their well-being, and the younger they are, the more that holds true. So, I really commend this initiative and I'm sure it will make for a better Wales for children.  

I just wanted to pick up on one point in the statement you made, Minister, which is the research done by the Wales Centre for Public Policy. You indicated that, rather than improving a child's behaviour, they found that the way physical punishment is typically used by parents is linked with anti-social behaviour and other undesirable behaviours in children, and I wondered if you could say a little bit more about that, because it seems to me that that is very, very important evidence.