Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:17 pm on 2 March 2022.
I'm grateful to take part in this question, and I thank Mabon for laying it. Unlike Samuel Kurtz, who will try to defend the indefensible, and has swallowed, obviously, the little black book or whatever it is he's been given to do that, I don't feel quite so assured, and I'm sure the farmers in my area and his area won't feel quite so assured either. It is a fact—let's keep to the facts here—that Australian animal welfare is lower. [Interruption.] This now is, you're quite right, a New Zealand trade deal. We all know that there is a high dependency in our area on exporting Welsh lamb, and it is, in my view, the best lamb in the world; there is no question about that. But we can't ignore the fact that there is going to be a cumulative effect of all these trade deals. It doesn't matter how you try to talk it up. And that in itself will have a negative impact on the farmers here in the UK, particularly here in Wales. Brexit was supposed to deliver freedom. Well, it isn't going to deliver much freedom for these farmers when they haven't got any money in their pockets. So, my question to you, Minister, is: above and beyond what the Welsh Government is already doing to support Welsh farmers, which is much more than the UK Government, by the way, what more is the Welsh Government able to do, considering that the budget for farmers has already been decreased by excessive amounts of money, so that Welsh Labour ensures the future of Welsh farming here in Wales, unlike the Tory Government who are determined to destroy it?