So, perhaps “cost pressures” is the pressure to reduce costs as a result of New Zealand’s high cost of living. Equally, it could refer to the Government tightening its purse strings as a recession looms.
Then there’s “under the pump”. Should it include en dashes to read under-the-pump? And while the colloquial term makes for a more relatable government, it somewhat fails to miss the mark as nowhere could I find moves to reduce petrol prices in Budget 2023.
Same goes for the quote: “When I became Prime Minister I said I would focus on the bread and butter issues Kiwi households are facing.” Kudos to the Prime Minister’s communications team for the clever use of imagery, but failing to include some sort of subsidy on bread and butter has left me feeling deflated.
The Plain Language Act
Cue the Plain Language Act, which ironically came into force last month. Introduced by Labour MP Rachel Boyack, the legislation aims to improve the effectiveness and accountability of the public service by requiring communications to be clear and accessible to the public.
Any documents must use language that is appropriate to the intended audience, and be clear, concise, and well organised, the legislation reads.
Tasked with issuing guidance, the Public Service Commissioner released a statement encouraging agencies to create style guides and standards. The Ministry of Social Development has a reference guide, for example, but the Parliamentary Counsel Office’s official checklist takes the cake, in my view.
For context, the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) is New Zealand’s law drafting office. Under the Legislation Act 2019, the objective of the PCO is to promote high-quality legislation that is easy to find, use, and understand.
The checklist is perhaps the boldest piece of bureaucratic material I’ve ever encountered. Hilariously, the writers managed to include the use of “blah” in its examples. “The purpose of this Bill is to provide a framework for [blah], to [among a list of things] promote efficient allocation of capital,” example 5 reads. Incredible!
In section 6.8, it clearly states: “using punctuation appropriately and consistently is part of ensuring that sentences are short, simple, and precise”. In other words, the Oxford comma has come out on top. Why?
“The purpose of plain language is clear communication. Punctuation marks often convey meaning, and when misused they can impede clarity or convey an incorrect meaning.” Praise be!
No hysterical use of language
For the verbose writers among us, section 5.1 calls to avoid emotive words, jargon, and “policy-speak”. Examples were pulled from UK legislation and include: astronomical, champion, passionate, visionary, superstar, and epic. Yikes! I’m saddened to see I can no longer champion some of these superstar words I’m so passionate about.
Under these rules “use” is to replace “leverage”, “improve” is to counter “optimise”, and “aims” is to be used over “strategic goals”. Fantastically, the use of “synergy” is strictly prohibited.
The legal aficionados have also taken a beating, where “prima facie” is to be replaced with “it is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary”. Actus reus and mens rea are also out. While ex post facto (retrospectively) is in the bin, I’m chuffed to see my personal favourite “ipso facto” has not been included in the naughty list.
Mind you, I was particularly confronted by the statement suggesting the use of fancy words in writing (such as here) could be overcompensating for a lack of substance.
“Some legal expressions, however, have no special legal meaning. They are either terms with a supposed ‘intellectual’ flourish that have a plain language equivalent, or ambiguous expressions that only appear to be precise,” the checklist reads.
But wait there’s more. Archaic words are a no no, tragically. That means we “shan’t” be seeing the likes of “whence”, “wherefore”, “wheresoever”, “whomsoever”, “won’t”, “nought”, “thusly”, and “notwithstanding” in any budgets, “henceforth”. Thankfully though, the checklist has taken a stand against “amongst” and “whilst”, which anecdotally gained popularity in younger circles in recent years. I still don’t know what “get amongst” means.
For those who are now geared to rid themselves of Shakespeare in favour of a TikTok friendly vocabulary, be careful. On the issue of words-of-the-day, the PCO references Bryan A Garner’s “The Elements of Legal Style”.
“Vogue words cheapen prose, partly because their fashionableness wears down their meaning to the blandest generality, and partly because they make you sound like an unthinking writer of ready-made phrases.” Ouch.
