Legislation will require government communications to be clear and concise, but opposition says monitoring will add more bureaucracy  Internal pain po

New Zealand hopes to banish jargon with plain language law

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2022-09-22 05:00:06

Legislation will require government communications to be clear and concise, but opposition says monitoring will add more bureaucracy

Internal pain points, change-adaptability, enhanced performance capability and the overlaying of certain planning provisions: these are the bewildering, often-enraging spectres of government gobbledegook that haunt official documents.

Now, the New Zealand government is attempting to drawing a thick red line through the worst offenders, with a new law demanding bureaucrats use simple, comprehensible language to communicate with the public.

The controversial bill passed its second reading last month, after colourful parliamentary debate, but still faces a final vote before becoming law.

“‘I wandered lonely as a cloud, That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils’,” MP Sarah Pallett quoted in the House. “Beautiful,” she continued. “Basically: ‘I was feeling sad. I went for a walk. I saw a lot of beautiful daffodils, and they cheered me right up’ – good old Wordsworth. But that is the place for flowery, inaccessible language – in poetry and literature, and not in government legislation.”

The Plain Language Bill will require government communications to the public be “clear, concise, well-organised, and audience-appropriate”. For the country’s anti-gibberish brigade, it’s a victory: they say clear language is a matter of social justice and a democratic right.

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