Call for public sector plain English law

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New laws are needed to force government staff to write in plain English, a new lobby group says.

Official Information Act responses show public sector commitment to clear writing is patchy, with only seven of 15 departments running plain English training for staff. Last year six government agencies paid external editors more than $73,000 to make their documents easier to understand.

New not-for-profit group Plain English Power has started a website to gather public support for clearer government documents. Committee member Lynda Harris, who also runs plain English consulting firm Write Group, said it was a basic democratic right to be able to decipher public documents easily.

She advocated following the United States, where the House of Representatives has just passed the Plain Language in Government Communications Act. "That's where New Zealand should be heading. There's no reason why we can't do something similar here."

Another committee member, Rachel McAlpine, said the use of plain English should become part of government chief executives' performance reviews - an incentive used by some private firms.

The Environment Ministry spent the most on external editing, paying $17,935 for 23 documents, including public discussion papers, environmental standards and case studies on sustainable building. The Labour Department and Economic Development, Education, Social Development and Health ministries also brought in external editors.

Initiatives to improve staff writing skills are equally ad hoc.

Fisheries, Environment and Research, Science and Technology ministries, the Conservation and Labour departments and Creative New Zealand all train staff to use plain English. The Building and Housing Ministry spent $61,844 last year on writing training for its 146 staff, and a further $60,000 installing plain English editing software.

The Environment, Education, Health, Social Development and Maori Affairs ministries aim to improve writing clarity using peer review - getting documents checked by someone less familiar with the subject.

Britain's Local Government Association recently urged council leaders and their staff to avoid 100 "non-words".

The list included the word "brainstorming", because it could offend epileptics. It was recommended that the term "thought shower" be used instead.

A spokesman for the National Society for Epilepsy said the directive was "political correctness gone a step too far".  

- © Fairfax NZ News