7. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Basic Income and the transition to a zero-carbon economy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:55 pm on 13 July 2022.

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Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative 3:55, 13 July 2022

Our academics—[Interruption.] Our academics exported the ideas of liberalism and conservative ideology, fighting for land property rights, religious self-determination and cultural and heritage acknowledgment, and the right to speak the nation's mother tongue. We did not achieve this through entitlement, nor through the notion that we are owed something as a people. We have persevered because we have fought to do so. Our people and our nation are proud and have historically been respected for their own ability to get on with the job.

A change in the wind with Welsh Labour has meant that, for the past 22 years, this state has failed the people of Wales. It has failed to provide adequate education, to take forward new thinkers and pioneers. It has failed to mount a healthcare system that looks after people from day one, and it has failed to build the basic foundations of a state that nurtures growth and facilitates a modern era of Welsh statehood. This results today in paying them off and allowing future generations to pick up the pieces later. If the people of Wales are lacking opportunity, or are struggling to make ends meet, or are unable to find jobs, it is because Welsh Labour have simply failed to spend their years in Government working on policy that delivers real results to improve people's lives.

Now, of course, they will sell this UBI idea as compassionate politics. But where were they—? In fact, where are you now, when Wales has some of the highest child poverty rates in Europe? Where were they when they were given mandate after mandate to solve the issues that we so often see—