Boyack Rachel; Dean JacquiPLAIN LANGUAGE BILLFirst ReadingRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): I move That the Plain Language Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill.The Plain Language Bill promotes the use of plain language in official documents and websites. The purpose of the bill is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of the Public Service by requiring their communications to be clear and accessible to the public. I would like to begin by acknowledging the original sponsor and drafter of this bill my colleague the Hon Chris Hipkins and former member of this House Charles Chauvel who assisted with the drafting. This bill was inspired by the Plain Writing Act 2010 in the United States. The bill in the United States requires the US Federal Government to write all new publications forms and publicly distributed documents in a clear concise well-organised manner that follows the best practices of plain language writing.As a new MP I was asked to take on this bill and there is a reason that I was delighted to do so. Fifteen years ago I was a fresh young graduate starting my professional career in a small public sector agency in Wellington called the Leadership Development Centre. I was given a role in communications despite having no formal training in this type of work. Instead I had spent quite a few years at university where I had learnt to pad out my essays in order to reach the required word count. My boss Bruce Anderson who was a pedant and a former teacher of English used to red-pen my letters and documents and I soon learnt the importance of brevity and clarity. I was sent on some plain English courses with an organisation in Wellington called the Write Group. Now called Write Ltd the team at Write led by founder Lynda Harris work with organisations to make their written messages clear. The training they gave me helped undo the habits I had developed at university and gave me the writing tools I needed to communicate clearly.One of the criticisms often put forward against plain language is that by using plain language we dumb down our communications. This is actually not the case. The best way to explain why plain language is so necessary is to use a real-life example. This one comes from the New Zealand Transport Agency's 2017 annual report: Transform the Transport Agency establishes a deliberate change management approach to successfully transition the Transport Agency to the refreshed strategy and the new ways of working. It drives improved organisational effectiveness through tenacious alignment of strategy to business planning resource allocation and performance measurement. It embeds our new DNA and the shift required to ensure we are customer focused collaborative curious and seeking innovation and value for money in all we do." In other words "We are going to improve our customer service and spend our money carefully."I could easily fill a full 10-minute speech with examples like that one. While there are some funny examples there is a serious side to this bill. The Plain Language Bill is important because clear information from Government organisations is a basic democratic right. The bill will make it easier for members of the public to engage with public sector agencies. New Zealand is at its best when we can all understand and easily participate in our democracy. Every day Government agencies are engaged in communication with the public. When Government agencies are explaining services benefits or how to comply with requirements they should use plain language and avoid jargon. Plain language that the intended reader can easily understand after one reading is the aim of this bill.As an electorate MP I've seen and read documents brought to me by constituents that are difficult to understand. I'm sure that this is an issue that every MP in this House has experienced. I am particularly aware of the need for letters and other written documents to be easily understood by people who have English as their second language. For example migrants who are seeking to obtain visas or New Zealand residency have the right to receive letters from Immigration that are easily understood. I recently had a journalist ring me and read me a letter that a migrant with English as a second language had received from a Government agency. It took the journalist and I about three goes to figure out what the letter said.This bill will make a real difference to how our Government agencies communicate with the public. The Plain Language Bill requires a reporting agency to use plain language and ensure that all relevant documents for which it is responsible use plain language. A relevant document means a document that is necessary to obtain a service or file a tax return provides information about any benefit or service or explains to the public how to comply with a requirement the Public Service administers or enforces. The definition of "plain language" in the bill means language that the intended reader can easily understand after one reading and is clear concise and well organised and follows recognised guidelines of plain language writing.The Public Service Commissioner may issue guidance on how reporting agencies may comply with the plain language requirements under this Act. The commissioner will be required to consult with reporting agencies when developing plain language guidance. Agencies will be required to appoint a plain language officer who will have responsibility for training agency employees dealing with complaints or requests from the public and ensuring that the agency complies with the law. Members of the public will be able to raise concerns about documents with the plain language officer. This is an important component of the bill. If a member of the public receives a letter that is difficult to understand they will be able to raise it with the agency's plain language officer.The bill also requires agencies to report to the Public Service Commissioner on their compliance and progress using plain language. No later than six months after this Act comes into force a reporting agency must report to the commissioner on compliance with the bill. Agencies will then be required to report annually to the public sector commissioner on their compliance. There are some things that are specifically not included in the bill. Nothing in this bill affects Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016 the Māori Language Act 2016 or the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. This is an important distinction to note. My bill is not designed to undermine the importance of te reo Māori or New Zealand Sign Language as official languages of Aotearoa New Zealand.I must apologise to all those who have written to me asking for my bill to include our local councils. While this bill does not include local councils I would encourage councils to strive to include plain language guidance in their documents. Since my bill was drawn I've received a number of supportive emails and messages from people working in the plain language sector or who have worked in Government agencies and been frustrated with the language used. Plain language experts in New Zealand have expressed their excitement at the bill being drawn from the ballot. I received the following email from a constituent who was appointed to a voluntary board of a Government agency in my region and here is what she said: "The paperwork was littered—absolutely littered—with acronyms. At a meeting I got fed up with it all and the response was to offer me the acronym dictionary. Yes there was such a thing."As this bill progresses to select committee I am keen to hear from members of the public about how this bill will improve their lives and their interactions with Government. I am also keen to hear from plain language experts about how we can make the law work better. It is a privilege to be able to guide this small but important bill through the House and I thank my colleagues for their support. I commend the Plain Language Bill to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."