New Zealand’s ‘plain language’ bill aims to ban fluffy words

Lawmakers in New Zealand are debating a bill that would require telling it to the people like it is.

A proposed ‘Plain Languages Bill’ mandates that government communication with the public be put in simple language “that the intended reader can easily understand after one reading.”

The controversial bill has passed second reading but still needs to face a final vote, according to the Guardian.

“People living in New Zealand have a right to understand what the government is asking them to do, and what their rights are, what they’re entitled to from the government,” MP Rachel Boyack, who introduced the bill, told the newspaper.

Canada’s Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would pass a “plain language” bill if he is elected this country’s prime minister.

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In addition to cutting out verbal claptrap, the New Zealand bill requires the appointment of “plain language officers,” a compliance plan from various government agencies and a plain language guide from the Public Service Commissioner.

The commissioner’s guidelines would also need to include accessibility requirements for people with disabilities.

Members of the opposition have cited the cost and resources constraints involved, adding there would be “no obvious gain in the quality of public documents.”

“Let me speak with extremely plain language,” said National party MP Chris Bishop. “This bill is the stupidest bill to come before parliament in this term. (National party) will repeal it.”

However, Labour lawmakers have argued, the effort would increase tax compliance, lessen backlogs and increase trust in government.

To illustrate how official communication can devolve into twaddle, New Zealand’s annual plain language award includes a Best Sentence Transformation trophy.

In 2017, judges awarded the best plain-English sentence transformation to the country’s statistic department.

This bill is the stupidest bill to come before parliament in this term

This sentence was taken from the department’s annual report: “Over the year we tested the innovation readiness and change-adaptability of the organisation, made significant changes to our prioritisation and investment approaches, moved to activity based working and seen teams across Stats respond by making time to focus on tackling customer and internal pain points.”

Jan Schrader, the winner, untangled the original to say this:

“We tested how ready our organisation was to innovate and make changes. We also changed our approach to setting priorities and to investing, and moved to a flexible working style for our staff. In response, staff focused on solving their own, and customers’, irritations.”

According to a statement from the Conservative Party of Canada, a plain language law would require government communications to use the “simplest and fewest words needed” to convey information.

“The Plain Language Act will make government writing and thinking simpler and clearer. The new rule will be that ‘everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler’ said Poilievre, noting that “technical terms and terms of art” would still be permitted.

The Conservative Party statement highlights a survey from the 2021 Canadian Federation of Independent Business report, which found that a significant proportion of small business owners (79 per cent) believe simplifying existing regulation and using plain language would reduce red tape.