Presiding Officer's speech on the eve of the opening of the Third Assembly

I am delighted to welcome you all here this evening on this happy occasion to celebrate the beginning of the Third Assembly. May I thank the jazz quartet from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for providing the musical backdrop to our supper. We have just enjoyed an uplifting interfaith service, giving Assembly Members the chance to join with representatives from all faith communities in Wales in celebrating the rich diversity of our nation. I am very grateful to the Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff Canon Robert Reardon, Reverend Aled Edwards, the Chief Executive of Cytun and Chair of the Faith Partnership Forum; and the members of the forum for their work and co-operation in devising an inclusive, inter-denominational and interfaith order of service. I would like to thank His Grace Archbishop Peter Smith and the Cathedral Clergy of the Metropolitan Cathedral of St David for their willingness to host the service, and also thank the Cathedral Choir, the Choirmaster and the Conductor. Tomorrow we will have the honour of welcoming Her Majesty the Queen to the Senedd to officially open the third Assembly. We are moving into a new era, with new powers, and we have a wonderful opportunity to attempt to take the constitution of Wales forward in a new stage of devolution. The constitutional importance of having a formal Royal opening should not be overlooked. The presence of the Queen marks our position as a devolved parliamentary institution within the UK. There has been talk over the past week or so of a “crisis”, as it took some time after the election for the new Welsh government to be formed. But this was not a crisis, it was democratic engagement and it was actually very exciting. One of our problems in Wales is that we are still under the shadow of the Westminster two-party system. But that is not the model of Welsh politics and we should not be applying it to Wales. Proportional representation tends to produce coalition and minority governments, and people need to look beyond Westminster to what happens in mainland Europe and other countries, including New Zealand, where these kind of post-election negotiations are the norm. What was important from a constitutional point of view was to end up with a government which reflects what the people of Wales voted for. We will now enter a period with a minority government, and this government will have to engage with other parties in order to get its business through the Assembly. This will call for maturity on all sides and can only lead to a more vibrant democracy, which will increase voter engagement and strengthen devolution. There has been a lot said about the need for stable government, but our new system under the Government of Wales Act will in any event be inherently more stable than the old system, where opposition parties were able to “instruct” the government and disrupt business. What the opposition will need to do in the Third Assembly is learn how to carry out effective scrutiny of the government. Only if the depth of scrutiny is strengthened will the electorate have the confidence in the Assembly to support further powers. I firmly believe that achieving a referendum on further powers, along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, should be a major priority for the Third Assembly. We also have new powers to pass Assembly Measures, a new way of introducing legislation for Wales, and individual AMs as well as Ministers will be able to propose such Measures. With the introduction of these new powers the scope for doing things differently in Wales will increase. I am particularly excited about the new petitions system, which provides an exciting opportunity for the people of Wales to engage with their Assembly.   For the first time in Wales, members of the public will be able to play a key role in the parliamentary process by raising issues of national concern directly with elected Members. I intend to launch an open consultation to invite the public to suggest how we can make our petitions system as open and effective as possible.  I urge anybody who is as excited as I am by the possibilities to visit our website and respond to the consultation. The themes of the interfaith service earlier this evening were Subsidiarity and Solidarity, Inclusive Wales and The Common Good. How appropriate it is that we should reflect on these themes as we move towards a new chapter in the history of the Assembly, and of Wales. It falls to us all to try to build the sort of open democratic institution that the people of Wales deserve.