Unlike the Tories, you’ll be pleased to hear that Plaid Cymru is very pleased to see this Bill begin its journey. I have to add one caveat to that, and that is: 'at last'. That is to say it has taken us some time to get to this point today, although one does appreciate that we have got here, and I do believe that the Assembly passed in principle the need for a Bill of this kind back in 2001. You mentioned 2002, so it’s been at least 17 years since the discussion was initiated, and that is far too long, I understand that there are various attitudes towards this, and we’ve heard some of them expressed today, but it’s the responsibility of Government to lead behavioural change, so I’m very pleased that we are beginning this journey. And my party has been at the heart of the effort to deliver this, with former Members such as Jocelyn Davies, Lindsay Whittle and others playing a key role in the attempt to abolish the defence of reasonable punishment, and we included a pledge in our manifesto for the 2016 election to introduce legislation to that end. Passing this Bill would mean that children in Wales would have the same defence against corporal punishment as adults.

It is an absurd situation at the moment. Why on earth are children now treated differently to adults? Why on earth do we not need a defence against reasonable punishment for one individual using physical force against another individual, but that there is a defence of using physical punishment against a child? One of the clearest signs of a civilised society is the way in which we treat vulnerable groups within our society, and passing this Bill would support children’s rights and would ensure that Wales complies fully with article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which of course requires that the state takes all necessary and appropriate steps to safeguard children.

I would like to pursue two issues—two questions, if you like—this afternoon. There are over 50 nations worldwide who have abolished the reasonable punishment defence, so my first question is: what lessons can Wales learn from the experiences of those nations—not only Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, but a whole host of other nations too? Positive lessons that we could benefit from, but also lessons in terms of how we can introduce this legislation in a more effective way.

My second question relates to positive parenting. There’s increasing evidence available that demonstrates that physical punishment is not effective and that it does damage children both physically and emotionally. And there are more and more parents who recognise that now, and attitudes towards bringing up children are changing. But it’s not always easy to know which techniques are best used in order to teach children that there are boundaries that should not be crossed. And I have to say, from my own experience as a single parent to four young children with only six years separating them, separating the youngest and the oldest, I know that parenting requires all sorts of skills and skills that, often, need to be learnt. Being a parent is one of the best jobs in the world, being a parent is one of the most important roles in the world, but being a parent can also be very challenging indeed. So, I believe, along with introducing this new legislation that we warmly welcome on these benches, we do need positive parenting programmes in place across Wales.

So, my second question is: will there be sufficient resources allocated in order to provide programmes of that kind? I don’t believe that it’s enough to extend the current provision, which is provided through Flying Start and so on. I’ve seen some of those in operation, and they can work superbly well, but they don’t reach everyone, and we do need to reach everyone. So, are there sufficient resources to do that? I look forward to the scrutiny work on this Bill, as a member of the children and young people’s committee over the next few weeks. Thank you.