6. Debate on the Report of the Special Purpose Committee on Senedd Reform — Reforming our Senedd: A stronger voice for the people of Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:46 pm on 8 June 2022.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 5:46, 8 June 2022

Look, I said at the beginning of my contribution that I was also compromising in supporting this, and that is the compromise that I'm making.

The reason that this is important, and this is the reason why I'm astonished by the Conservative response to it, is that this is about holding the Government to account. Now, all of us in this Chamber learnt at the beginning of this Senedd that the Conservatives had given up on any pretence of wanting to be in Government, but now we learn they're giving up on opposition as well. It's not a matter for Government to be held to account, it's us in this Chamber holding the Government to account, and what these reforms do is to empower the opposition and backbenchers, and yet the primary opposition party don't want it. It's astonishing, it's astonishing, and it's something you need to think seriously about. Because let me say this, let me say this to you, it is important that we are able to scrutinise Government and do it effectively, and that means that we need a culture of scrutiny and not just the numbers to deliver that scrutiny. And we don't have that at present and the way in which you're approaching this debate is not going to deliver that either.

And, do you know, I've heard Conservatives argue this afternoon that we don't want to give the power to parties to determine who stands and what is done here, but they've all read out the same speech. Now, whatever you might think about the contributions that we're making here from the Labour backbenches and from Plaid Cymru and Jane Dodds as the Liberal Democrat, at least we've written our speeches and we've come here thinking about these matters. What you've done is read out the speeches—