Assembly should not be surrendering initiative on further powers

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 4th Oct 2004

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader in the Assembly Mike German has accused Rhodri Morgan of timidity in surrendering responsibility for getting the Assembly the powers it needs to work for the Wales.

On Wednesday AMs will discuss the Richard Report, which recommended that the Assembly should become a parliament with law-making powers by 2011. But instead of taking up the challenge of implementing the recommendations, the motion instead calls on the First Minister to get the Welsh Secretary Peter Hain to take action.

Mr German said: "Yet again, as he has done all along, the First Minister is ceding the initiative to Peter Hain on this issue. When we discuss this on Wednesday the motion basically says 'in Peter Hain we trust'. If approved, the motion would put all our future hopes in the hands of the Secretary of State.

"Asking the Welsh Secretary doesn't get us anywhere normally at the Queen's speech, so why should we think it will do anything in this case. It is symptomatic of the lack of leadership Rhodri Morgan has shown at every turn. While he has allowed his influence to wane, Peter Hain has seized the reigns. Yet after the general election, Peter Hain may not be holding the reigns, as he will doubtless be pursuing his leadership ambitions in another Whitehall department.

"The Assembly commissioned the Richard Report in an effort to find solutions to the day-to-day problems we face in making decisions for Wales. It was set up to correct the problems we inherited from Ron Davies' Westminster compromises in the Government of Wales act.

"Although Labour's Better Governance for Wales paper was a shameless fudge with little to commend it, at least there was more sense there than there is in this motion. And this despite the fact that there is a greater unity among AMs - of all parties - about the way forward, than there was among the wider Labour Party."