6. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Brexit and Our Land

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:49 pm on 4 June 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 5:49, 4 June 2019

Thank you, Andrew, for those questions and those comments. I absolutely agree with you: I do think I have the most exciting job in Government, and you're quite right, this is the first time in 45 years we've had the ability to be able do this, and that's why we need to get the agricultural policy and the support policy absolutely right. I won't to be rushed. I've not been as early as I would've liked to have been with this statement. I had asked for this statement to be tabled about three or four weeks ago. Then we had to, obviously, participate in the European elections, so we had the purdah period. So, this is the first time I've been able to bring it forward, which was really important because I want to bring forward the second consultation—we're calling it 'Brexit and our land 2'; that probably won't be the title in the end, but that's the working title—ahead of the Royal Welsh Show, to do the same as we did last year with 'Brexit and our land', when we had that long 16-week consultation. I propose to do the same with this second consultation, but to launch it ahead of the Royal Welsh Show and the summer agricultural shows because that's the time when I think we can all have really deep, meaningful conversations with a lot of our stakeholders. But I am very aware that we need to get this right for future generations also.