Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 27 April 2022.
Absolutely. I think that anybody who puts themselves forward for public service through election is doing something incredibly brave, and it is important that people have that opportunity to make that contribution to their communities and are able to do so in a way that doesn't subject them or find them subjected to abuse. The abuse that people in public life receive is appalling. I think that probably you'd be a very lucky person in this Chamber if you hadn't come across some awful treatment, usually through social media, but also in other ways. So, we have to do everything that we can to make sure that people who stand for election and people who are elected aren't subject to that abuse. It's partly about coming together across parties to call it out when we see it and to stand together in that sense, but it's also about doing things such as using our legislation in the way that we have to ensure now that candidates no longer have to have their home addresses published in public and so on. So, there are certain important safeguards that we can put in place, but in this discussion I'm really wary that we don't want to put people off public service as well. There is this abuse that all of us face, but actually it's an incredible privilege to do these jobs, and I think that we always need to keep our eye on that as well when we're talking about the negative side and the darker side of the experiences people have.