Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:09 pm on 14 June 2022.
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and I'd like to formally move the amendment in the name of my colleague and friend Darren Millar. [Interruption.] Any time.
What we're seeing here today, Llywydd, is yet another commission being set up by the Welsh Government to look at an issue that it's already made its mind up on. Last week it was more MSs, and this week it's another commission. The Cardiff Bay gravy train really does keep going for the friends of the Labour Party—[Interruption.] We've heard you already, Alun—[Interruption.] No, thank you, Alun. No, thank you, Alun. I've heard you once already.
Having looked this morning at the backgrounds and the social media feeds of the individuals that have been appointed to the committee, it seems a number of them have only one thing in common: an opposition to the UK Government. It isn't a balanced committee with a range of views, it's essentially a left-wing think tank that takes its ideas and its members firmly from within the Cardiff Bay bubble, and we should treat the inevitable findings with that in mind.
I noticed this morning Plaid Cymru tweeting, 'Breaking news: power over Welsh broadcasting a step closer', but it isn't closer at all. As we've just heard from Alun Davies and the Deputy Minister, we know that the Labour Party will not devolve that power—bad news for Plaid Cymru on that. Their general election manifesto—[Interruption.] We know that power currently resides with the UK Government. We know Labour's 2019 manifesto said, and I quote,
'A Labour government will ensure a healthy future for all our public service broadcasters, including BBC Alba and S4C.'
That doesn't sound to me like a Labour Government that would be particularly keen on devolving that power either. Maybe the Labour Party would be better advised to spend a bit of time agreeing a position within their own party than wasting taxpayers' money on this commission.
We know that the devolution of broadcasting is simply a bad idea. What is the purpose? What are we trying to fix? Those aren't my words, they're the words of the director of BBC Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, when discussing broadcasting in the previous Senedd's culture committee. Phil Henfrey, the head of news and programmes for ITV Wales, told the same committee that the debate about devolving powers over broadcasting risked overlooking the appeal of UK programming to Welsh audiences.
I heard earlier today the First Minister, in an answer to Adam Price, talking up the merits of listening to the experts. This isn't the Welsh Government listening to the experts on broadcasting, it's a Welsh Government that has a devolve now and worry about the details later approach. And it's true, because they have no plan about what they would actually do with the powers if they got devolved. It can't be clearer than in the statement that we just heard from the Deputy Minister, where she referred to the licence fee freeze and Channel 4 privatisation. But there's nothing today to suggest any of it would be different if it were devolved. Would the Welsh Government look to reverse the privatisation of Channel 4? Would it look to keep taxpayers paying licence fees when the rest of the UK wouldn't be? [Interruption.] It would? Well, it's good to know that Welsh citizens would be—. Well, it's an interesting update from the backbenches of the Labour Party to hear that if UK taxpayers were not paying licence fees, Welsh taxpayers would still continue to if that power were to be devolved. Or would none of it come to fruition and we'd just keep doing the same things because the Welsh Government loves nothing more than to hoard powers just to do nothing with them?
Broadcasting in Wales under the control of the UK Government has been a success story. Take S4C, for example, securing an extra £7.5 million from the UK Government to boost its digital output and supporting the channel to reach wider audiences, showcasing our Welsh language to even more people. The UK Government's White Paper on broadcasting reforms—