Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:32 pm on 3 March 2020.
I do remember Gordon Brown putting forward an alternative budget many years ago, and I think the Labour Party was out of power for many years after that. It wasn't Gordon Brown, sorry, I take that back—Mike Hedges will correct me—it was John Smith. The problem with putting forward an alternative budget is, as the Minister knows, an economic situation is fast-moving, and, actually, it is for the Government to put forward a budget. It is for Government to put forward the budget and for the other parties to say where those amendments should be made. And if that is the Labour Party's way of saying that you want another party to put forward a budget, well, I'll tell you what, my colleagues here, Janet Finch-Saunders, Mohammad Asghar and Mark Isherwood, they will gladly come over and put forward a budget for you, and I'm sure that the people of Wales will look forward to seeing a few changes. But we'll leave that for another day.
We are not supporting this budget. We welcome the fact that the Welsh Government finally has some more money at its disposal with £600 million more from the UK Government. The age of austerity is coming to an end. But taxpayers in Wales will rightly question a number of the Welsh Government's decisions when it comes to investing in the Welsh economy and building a better Wales in the wake of Brexit. What have we seen? Over £100 million on a public inquiry on the M4; £20 million on the Circuit of Wales project; basically what amounts to a blank cheque for Cardiff Airport—not my words, but the words of the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, who is of course me, so they are my words—an editing error. [Laughter.]
We welcome the fact that the Welsh Government has invested £37 billion in the Welsh NHS since 2016—[Interruption.] In one moment. And is announcing an extra £400 million spend on health. That is to be welcomed. That is good news from the Welsh Government, but we want to see more money going into transformational change. I give way to the former First Minister.