Dirprwy Lywydd, of course I accept that you received legal advice permitting the Stage 2 amendments that now prompt these Stage 3 amendments. I'm not challenging that, but I do think it's worth reinforcing the points why the Commission, representing the four largest parties in this Chamber, of course, agreed that this particular extension to the franchise should not be included in the Bill as laid.

Like on a number of other controversial issues—the increase in the number of Members being perhaps being the most well aired—Commissioners agreed that this should be a matter for further examination prior to the introduction of a second Bill. And the first reason for that position was the lack of political consensus. There has been no attempt to reach political consensus since then, and this matters. And this matters because of the Llywydd's stated aim of ensuring that this Bill, a Commission Bill, had support from across the political spectrum—a very noble aim, and an important one, as this is not a Government Bill; it was given birth by this Assembly.

And the second reason we didn't include it is because, unlike votes for 16-year-olds or an increase in the number of Members, the introduction of votes for a new category of resident foreign nationals was not the subject of public discourse or any Assembly scrutiny at that point. And it has not been the subject of public discourse or Assembly scrutiny since then.

If an amendment had been tabled in favour of votes for prisoners, at least supporters could have pointed to the work of an Assembly committee and a debate on its findings. Votes for resident foreign nationals would have been a perfectly appropriate addition to the agenda of the committee for Assembly reform or—as was initially anticipated by the Commission—the next Assembly. 

While I accept that Welsh Government has been looking at this question in the context of local government, the content of these amendments was not in any party's Assembly manifesto in 2016 and really has only come to public attention very recently, following announcements made at this year's UK Labour Party conference. Now, instead of bringing forward its own Bill, Welsh Government has hijacked this one—I reinforce the word that David Melding has used, and strangely on this occasion is supported by Plaid, who were making arguments precisely this hijacking when we were talking about the name of this Bill.

So, we've got this in front of us now without anything like scrutinised evidence in favour of extending the franchise to resident foreign nationals. I would have liked to hear that evidence, as we did in favour of votes for prisoners, but none has been presented to this Assembly—no questions of how to reach these new voters, how to ensure that they understand their new rights, the whole issue of refugees and asylum seekers, as raised by Leanne there, no consideration of an appropriate period of residency, no examination of this in the context of citizenship, and certainly no consideration of any new cost to the Commission of the awareness-raising work needed to reach an estimated 30,000 new voters. There is no new provision for this in the budget on which you've just voted. 

We should not be passing laws in this way. When I went campaigning for a Welsh Parliament 40 years ago, I could not have foreseen how little regard it would have from time to time for the thoroughness of legislative process. The Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee complained about the lack of scrutiny that the Electoral Commission proposals have received in this, but at least it had some. Imagine what they would say about this?

Yesterday, we were filling in the gaps on the minimum alcohol pricing legislation, a law we passed without evidence on what an effective minimum alcohol price would be. We're in the process of passing a smacking ban Bill, without any certainty as to how the police and the CPS intend to deal with parents. And now we have these amendments passing in a vacuum, which will become law on the back of no public mandate. Why on earth did you just not go the whole hog and table amendments on additional Members or the voting system?

I want to know an answer to this: why now? What is the rush? What's the advantage and to whom? This Bill doesn't create a common franchise for Welsh elections. These amendments presume that Welsh Government will succeed in introducing the equivalent rights in local government elections at some point. And at least that twinkle in the Government's eye has seen some preliminary work and will prompt full consultation and scrutiny. Yes, the prospect of resident foreign nationals voting in local and municipal elections will get full scrutiny, as it will have done in several other countries that have permitted this. But, in creating a right to vote in elections to a national legislature, a global rarity is happening on the back of pre-determined cuckooing of this Bill. 

This Bill is a novel and exciting way of legislating, but I'm afraid it's become a crushing disappointment. It will take a lot now to persuade me of the merits of a Commission bringing forward Bills in future. And for someone who really feels the privilege of being a parliamentarian, I am saddened more than I can say.