Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:07 pm on 10 June 2020.
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I support the principle of the motion. So, I'll come to my amendment. First of all, I think it's probably better to maybe listen to what I've got to say before saying that you're not going to support my amendment.
The idea of amendment 6(d), looking at food and drink and creating a fully fledged whisky industry, is totally doable and it can be done really, really cheaply. Wales has got to be one of the only Celtic countries without a whisky industry, and if you're a whisky enthusiast like me, then that's really disappointing. But what is really interesting is that the market worldwide is so, so lucrative. So, within five years of, let's say 20 distilleries being established, you could have a £100 million export industry, which, in year 10, year 15, year 20, the growth would be huge.
I think in terms of quality of food, as well, we should be really looking at high-end products—make Welsh products really expensive in the world because people will pay for perceived quality.
In terms of amendment 6(c), there will be opportunities with Brexit, and what we need to look at with the Welsh public sector contracts, the public money we spend, these contracts must go to Welsh companies. So, for every—. If we reorientated a very large percentage of public sector contracts to Welsh companies, then we could be creating in the region of 80,000 jobs, which would be extremely significant. And I think if a Welsh company, in future, doesn't get a contract off the Government, there has to be a really good reason why. We won't be any longer bound by EU regulations, so that is completely doable.
We look at the hospitality industry, I'm really concerned that lots of people involved in it—pubs, for example—are still paying for rent. It's absolutely outrageous that they're getting rinsed by the pub companies at the moment. Whether or not this motion goes through, or whether the amendment actually goes through—whether it does or not—I really would like the Government to step up to the plate and support the Welsh hospitality industry by, I think, the furlough initiative going on until 2021. We've really got to try and influence those companies to stop making it so difficult for Welsh pubs to survive.
Amendment 6(a), really, is—. We've got to stop businesses being treated badly by landlords. It's happening far too often. There's a case in Cardiff West where a dance studio catering for 120 children—120 kids—with an inspirational dance teacher. The money, by the landlord, has still not been passed on. It's just really, really poor behaviour, and I really feel for Vickie—she runs Rubylicious—because she's told people what is happening, she's not received the money. She's never alleged criminality, she's never alleged fraud, she simply alleged bad behaviour, and now she finds herself in a position where she could be sued. She's received a really nasty, aggressive solicitor's letter from an employee of the First Minister, no less. So, I'd like to use this opportunity to encourage, in this context, the MS for Cardiff West to maybe have a word with their staff member and tell him to stop treating the inspirational teacher of that dance school in such a bullying, aggressive way. I think he's bringing his employer into disrepute, almost. It's certainly embarrassing him, and that's a code of conduct issue, so I'd ask the MS for Cardiff West to look at that. To go back to the substantive point here, it's not right that the money being aimed at businesses is being taken by landlords.
So, what you have there is just a small package, some ideas. It looks at raising money for the whisky industry. We could also have a stock exchange in Cardiff, for example. We need to start coming forward with these ideas. It's going to be a big challenge to get over this crisis, and we've got to have some concrete ideas.
In terms of the expression of the amendments—