Like others, I'd like to start my contribution this afternoon by thanking those people who gave evidence to the committee, and thanking the committee secretariat for the work they've done in producing this report. I think the report is very timely. It deals with some of the more fundamental issues that we face as a country, and, like Tom Giffard, I'm very grateful to the Minister for accepting all but two of our recommendations. In many ways, the committee report states what we already know—it states the obvious that costs have increased—and we've seen the impact of those increases in costs, and we can describe in different ways how those cost increases have affected arts, culture and sport in our own constituencies. But I want to make a somewhat different point this afternoon.

Whilst it's fair to argue that increased costs have similar impacts across the face of the country—the increased costs of electricity are the same here as they would be in Blaenau Gwent—what I would argue, though, is that the impact on people and places is different. If a Government's response is simply to treat all places and people equally, then they're not addressing the real issues that affect people in different parts of the country. We had a conversation in topical questions about the nature of equality in rugby, but the point I want to make this afternoon is that there's an important and fundamental nature of equality in all that we do in terms of arts, culture and sport, and that at the moment, I believe that we are failing the basic test of equality. 

We had a conversation with the Minister last week over the Welsh Government's budget, and the Minister made the correct and clear case that it is a matter for different bodies, such as Sport Wales and the Arts Council of Wales, to distribute funding according to the remit letter that is set for them, and that the remit letter covers the next five years. I accept and I agree with that, and that is the correct answer to the question, but it misses the point. Because the Government has a responsibility in setting out that remit letter, so that the constituents I represent in Blaenau Gwent, and that, in fact, she represents in Merthyr, are treated equally as the people represented here by—Jenny Rathbone always catches my eye as I look across the Chamber, and I don't mean to pick on you, Jenny—but the people Jenny represents in the centre of Cardiff.

So, it is important, therefore, that people who are unable to pay the additional costs charged to access cultural or sporting activity have additional help to do so. It is important that those venues and facilities that are unable to sustain their programme of activities or their opening hours for the general public are able to do so, wherever they may be. And there is a greater reliance on Government help and Government support and the role and place of Government in places like Blaenau Gwent than in places like Cardiff. Therefore, if the test that we want to set for the Government is equality, then I want to see the Government doing more where there is greatest need and less where there is less need. And that is a difficult point to make for Government, because the Government likes to tell us that everywhere in Wales is having a little piece of jam, and we've been doing this for the 15 years I've been here. However, that means that some people are still left needing greater support whilst others receive support that perhaps they don't fully need. And it is the test of equality that I want to set for the Minister in debating and discussing this report, because it is important, and it does relate to the conversation we had earlier about equality.

Because what we are seeking to achieve in Wales is cultural change, cultural change in terms of sporting activity, so that people like me, who look like me—and, let's face it, I've bought a new suit every year for the last 15 years—are able to reduce their weight and are able to increase their fitness levels. But you're unable to do it if you're locking people out of sporting and fitness activities because they can't afford the costs of accessing them. We want to see cultural change whereby everybody has the same opportunity to express who they are, their cultural identity, their own background. But if they don't access the cultural venues that they need to in order to do that, you are locking them out from the culture of our country.

So, if we do want to see the change that I think we all want to see, on all sides of the Chamber, as it happens, then that means that the Government cannot stand back and say, 'I wrote a letter last year, and I'll come back to you in another five years.' It means that the Government has to be an activist Government, intervening in these matters, month after month and week after week and year after year. And that means that the Government, if it is serious about equality and serious about achieving its ambitions of equality, has to take tough decisions, and that, Minister, is what I want to hear in your reply to this debate. I'm grateful to Members.