A Week in the Assembly

Rhodri Morgan was 12,000 miles away on a trade and cultural trip to Australia. But he still didn't get an easy ride in the National Assembly writes BBC Wales's Nick Horton.

So while the First Secretary was in New South Wales, in Old South Wales (or Classic South Wales, as he might put it), the criticism mounted.

Business Secretary Andrew Davies answered First Secretary's Questions on his behalf and confessed, tongue-in-cheek, that he sometimes wished he was on the other side of the world too.

Labour was accused by all sides of letting north Wales down. North Wales Conservative AM Peter Rogers said, for instance, that a planned marina in Beaumaris had been delayed on dubious planning grounds.

Andrew Davies - stood in for Rhodri Morgan

Plaid Cymru Conwy AM Gareth Jones listed a number of negative decisions to have affected the north, including cuts in funding to theatres and citizens' advice bureaux.

Mr Davies rejected the attacks. He said north Wales was an integral part of the nation and received as much consideration as all other areas.

But while he insisted that the perception that north Wales is badly done by is wrong, he said the assembly had to address that idea.

Independent Conservative Rod Richards, also a north Wales AM, noted that Mr Morgan was in New South Wales, and urged him also to visit Cheshire.

The grant for Airbus is still under review

This English county, he said, was home to 38% of the staff at BAe Systems at Broughton, Flintshire, where Mr Morgan has to decide whether to grant £25m to secure 1,400 jobs.

But Mr Richards said devolution meant these residents of England had no political mechanism to influence Mr Morgan, even though he held their future in his hands.

Plaid Cymru's Rhodri Glyn Thomas said that although Mr Morgan holds both posts of First Secretary and Economic Development, he was absent "on some far-flung beach in Australia".

Andrew Davies responded that if Mr Morgan had not made official visits overseas he would be criticised as parochial and insular.

The protection of vulnerable children was high on the agenda

AMs also debated plans for a children's commissioner for Wales, in the wake of the Waterhouse report into abuse in children's homes in north Wales in the 1970s and 80s.

Health and Social Services Secretary Jane Hutt said many children in Wales suffer because of social and economic deprivation.

She added: "We have a duty to protect and develop all children, but especially the most vulnerable."

Labour Wrexham AM John Marek told members that they could congratulate themselves on the proposal for a children's commissioner.

He said the commissioner had to have statutory powers, and be seen to be independent. But he called for the job to be open to a wide spectrum of applicants to ensure it goes to someone of the highest calibre.

Mr Marek said he didn't want the job description to be so restricted that only two or three people in Wales could apply and satisfy all the conditions.