A plain language coach says the introduction of a member's bill at Parliament requiring government departments to use plain language is more than just "dumbing down" documents for the average Kiwi.
Shelly Davies spoke to Breakfast on Friday morning after Nelson MP Rachel Boyack saw her Plain Language Bill drawn from Parliament's biscuit tin on Thursday.
Boyack's bill will require government departments, such as the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Social Development, along with Crown agents such as district health boards, ACC and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, to use plain language in official documents and on their websites.
Davies said the bill is about clarity and accessibility for the public.
"It's so important for two reasons," Davies said.
"One is an equity issue but I would hate for it to sound like it was only about dumbing information down because it's not about that at all.
"It's about making information available to us in a way that we can read it once and understandable."
Davies said the bill wasn't about intelligence either, stating studies had suggested even those with high IQ prefer plain language.
Instead, academia was one of the main reasons plain language has become so important.
"Academia, historically, teaches us to use a language to speak to other academics and that's the only way most of learn how to write so we come into our jobs and use this overly-formal language," she said.
"It doesn't work when we're communicating to a wider audience."
Davies said legal considerations and human nature were the other two major drivers behind complicated wording with humans associating official documentation with sophisticated language.
"We copy old-fashioned, out of date ways of writing."
Boyack’s bill, one of seven members' bills drawn Thursday, will be introduced to the House to undergo the same process of debate and referral to a select committee as Government bills.
Boyack also pointed out the bill would not override Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016/the Māori Language Act 2016 or the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006.
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