A Welsh Government minister has been reprimanded by the Senedd's presiding officer after calling a female opposition member's comments 'hysterical.' Lee Waters MS, the deputy climate change minister, used the word as he was questioned by Natasha Asghar MS, the Welsh Conservative member for South Wales East, on transport policy on Wednesday November 23.
Presiding Officer Elin Jones told him hysterical was an "inappropriate" word and there was a long history of it being "used by men to demean women. Llanelli MS Mr Waters has since apologised, saying: "I completely understand the point, have reflected and apologised."
Ms Asghar had challenged Mr Waters over his support for speed cameras and road charges. When she asked him why he had told ITV's Sharp End that there could be more 50mph speed zones introduced in Wales, Mr Waters replied: "Well, I do enjoy the post-match analysis of my interviews; it's always very good to get feedback, and, again, from tabloid newspaper editors.
"Perhaps she should be a tabloid TV critic as well; there are certainly other avenues open to her should she not decide her future is in politics, which would be a great shame." He added that the 50mph speed limits were introduced to bring pollution levels down, and said Ms Asghar was "wrong with her facts, wrong with her analysis and wrong in her diagnosis of the motivation behind them."
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Ms Asghar responded: "I appreciate your call for my future career change, whereas I'm quite happy where I am. I plan on staying here for a very long time because someone needs to hold you to account."
She then pushed Mr Waters further on why he'd suggested road charges could be introduced during a cost of living crisis, which prompted his barbed reply which included the word "hysterical." He said: "Well, I can only assume that Natasha Asghar's researchers have the week off, but, clearly, she got a lot out of this week's Sharp End, which I'm sure they'll be very pleased about."
He went on to explain that, as fewer people buy petrol cars, the public money that governments get from fuel duty would need to be sourced from road charges instead - something he said the Conservative UK Government was considering too. He added: "So, whenever she comes up with hysterical labels to throw at me, she really needs to think beyond the soundbite to what she's saying, because this is something all governments are doing, because, simply, the rules are changing."
The Senedd session moved on, but later in the afternoon, the Llywydd Elin Jones came back to the use of the word "hysterical" - saying it was "inappropriate," even if Lee Waters used it "naively."
She said: "Natasha Asghar asked me earlier to reflect on the appropriateness of the use of the term 'hysterical' in response to her by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change during questions this afternoon. There is a very, very long history of the term 'hysteria' being used by men to demean women, especially women in public life, and I apologise to Natasha Asghar for not having noticed it at the time it was said.
"'Hysterical' is an inappropriate word to describe any contribution by any woman in this Chamber. It may have been naively used by the Deputy Minister at the time, but I don't expect to hear it again."
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