Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. The first Bill this Welsh Government has chosen to put forward to the sixth Senedd is not one that deals with the ambulance response crisis or the thousands of people waiting more than two years for an operation, nor does it even deal with the current COVID pandemic. [Interruption.] Instead, this Government is chiefly concerned with looking after their trade union paymasters. [Interruption.] The major issue with this Bill is that it demands a public body to consult with trade unions and requires a sign-off from them in order for procurement contracts to proceed.

In itself, consulting with an outside body to ensure full impartiality and to make sure that fair processes are enforced is not a new development. However, surely the Deputy Minister can see that there is a clear issue in how trade unions will now have undue influence over public procurement and how trade unions will now effectively police the public procurement system in Wales. Under this proposed legislation, any social partnership report must be agreed with the public body's recognised trade unions or the public body will have to answer to the Welsh Government, writing a full report explaining why they have failed to meet the trade union demands. [Interruption.] This Welsh Government, using this Bill, will effectively be setting themselves up to act as Tartarus, punishing those who stand up to their trade union gods.

In your own consultation, several local authority employers felt the benefits of fair work are already recognised, and they could not see what benefits this legislation would bring. Therefore, can the Deputy Minister explain what, if any, are the benefits of this legislation—[Interruption.]—that cannot already be achieved under current legislation? Can the Deputy Minister also clarify if trade unions will receive remuneration for their involvement with meeting the requirements of the Bill and who will ultimately fund this? [Interruption.] I presume that the trade unions will seek remuneration for their endeavours, and so what this Bill is creating is a Government-backed income stream for the trade unions, because no doubt they will be tasked with employing and I also presume training the necessary people to scrutinise public contracts. I suspect that many trade unions are therefore not staffed to meet the requirements of this Bill. This Government will be funnelling public money to increase the working capacity of these trade unions who will then be directly funding, through their subscriptions and donations, the Welsh Labour Party. The Deputy Minister must clearly see how this is not only unethical behaviour, but a tremendous slap in the face of hospitals, charities, schools and councils who are crying out for extra funding to deliver basic services. The Deputy Minister should no doubt be able to see another glaring problem in that the whole system, by its very nature, can be subjected to accusations of corruption, whereby trade unions could be seen to favour one employer or contract over another. This is seeding the bed of corruption and is something that I am—and, I'm sure, many other Members here—exceptionally concerned about.

The view that trade unions will now have undue influence over public contracts can also be clearly seen in the fact that the social partnership council for Wales will have a third of its membership made up of them, while you propose only three representatives from the whole of the private sector, on whom this Bill will have a direct influence. Unquestionably, the Deputy Minister would have already recognised this, so therefore I can only assume it has been done with deliberate intention, and highlights once again that the Welsh Government is primarily concerned with increasing the power of the trade unions in this nation. The Minister must surely agree with me that the private sector is massively under-represented, and I would ask them if they can explain why so few private sector representatives are on the social partnership council.

Furthermore, because the Bill will rely so heavily on trade union involvement, there is a risk that workers within sectors where unionisation rates are low or non-existent would be excluded from the social partnership arrangements and their associated benefits. Knowing this, can the Deputy Minister explain why this Bill relies so heavily on trade unions and asks them to scrutinise and sign off public procurement and construction contracts? Why couldn't an independent body be given the same powers of review? Existing arrangements with trade unions would still be in place, and therefore, in my mind, there is no good reason to task trade unions with signing off social partnership contracts.

Finally, I would like to say that I agree with, and my party supports, the benefits that fair work and fair pay—