By Tom Bodden
Published January 26th 2004 in The Daily Post
WELSH Environment Minister Carwyn Jones is to call for more law-making powers for the Assembly.
The youngest member of Rhodri Morgan's cabinet also wants the number of AMs increased from 60 to 80, with a new voting system to return two members from each constituency.
And a review should take place of the "quango state" in Wales in which each public body is examined over its future existence, he said.
Mr Jones will make the case next week in a public lecture and paper for the Institute of Welsh Affairs.
He is the first member of the Assembly government to declare support for such changes, ahead of the publication of the Richard Commission report on the future powers of the Assembly in March.
The Bridgend AM said yesterday he expected some hostile reaction within Labour to his stand but said it was time to make the case.
"I am in favour of primary lawmaking powers over devolved responsibilities," he said.
"Tax-raising powers are potentially a good idea but not something that's feasible for the foreseeable future," said Mr Jones.
The Minister wants the present proportional representation method of election to the Assembly, which returns 40 constituency AMs and 20 from regional party lists, scrapped.
Instead he favours dual-member constituencies, where voters would directly elect two AMs.
"Does it really make sense that of the eight legislatures in the United Kingdom and Crown dependencies, the only one without primary law-making powers is the Welsh Assembly?
"The question is not so much why the Assembly should have primary powers, as why it shouldn't."
Wales had to submit a wish list of six or seven Bills to Westminster each year in the hope of gaining a place in the Queen's Speech, averaging about one Bill per year, he said.
"Why do we need to do that? Scotland doesn't, England doesn't, Northern Ireland doesn't," he added.
"Primary powers for dealing with the Welsh language rest at Westminster and that doesn't make sense.
"We have voted in the Assembly to ban smoking in public places and with primary powers we could take that forward."
Plaid Cymru had abandoned its aim of a full parliament in favour of independence for Wales, Mr Jones said.
He described his paper as an attempt to contribute to a debate that will take place over the next year.
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain dismissed the Scottish model of a parliament for Wales, and insisted the number of Welsh MPs at Westminster should not be reduced in a new devolution deal.
Clwyd West Labour MP Gareth Thomas attacked any attempt to "bounce" politicians or voters into a new settlement.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.