It is doubtful if there is anyone who has never been annoyed by reading official documents: the language in them tends to be complex, sometimes cumbersome, in some areas full of professional jargon, and causes many citizens to give up reading in advance. In New Zealand they decided to fight the phenomenon.
Parliament approved in third reading the plain language law, which requires officials to use accessible and easy-to-understand language when addressing the general public.
According to the government, the purpose of the law is to make democracy more inclusive, especially for citizens for whom English is a second language, those with disabilities and those with low education.
Ardern.
has pledged to make the native language available in all schools by 2025, photo: E.P
"People living in New Zealand have a right to understand what the government is asking them to do and what their rights are in general," said MP Rachel Boyack, who presented the bill. Necessary. The change in question is requested to help in communication with the New Zealanders."
The proposal was approved with the support of Labour, the Green Party and the Maori Party, but not before it was criticized by the opposition, which pledged to cancel it if elected next year.
National Party MP Simon Brown said the law was a "solution looking for a problem" and would only create a new layer of bureaucracy in the form of plain language officers.
"The plain language officers, in white coats and equipped with writing boards, will run among the clerks and look over their shoulder to see if they write words with less than one syllable," St. Brown.
Supporters of the law say that the law will actually save money and work time in the public sector, and emphasize that clear communication is the key to a functioning democracy.
By the way, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the leader of the local Labor Party, Jacinda Ardern, has a special sensitivity to the use of language as a means of bringing together and connecting the parts of society.
She herself learned the Maori language - the natives of New Zealand, gave her daughter a middle name in this language, and even said that by 2025 the studies of the native language will be available in all schools of Aotearoa (Aotearoa) - the local name of New Zealand.
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