National Party attacks accessibility for disabled people
The National Party is repealing the Plain Language Act. This Act was intended to ensure government documents are easy to understand.
What’s happening?
The New Zealand Government has introduced the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill, which aims to remove plain language requirements for government agencies.
The Plain Language Act was designed to protect the rights of disabled people. By repealing this Act, the National Party are intentionally disadvantaging disabled people, who depend on government communications being easy to read.
According to the New Zealand Work Research Institute, 1 in 8 NZ adults have low literacy — about 12%, or 650,000 people.
Make a submission!
You have until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 14 May 2025 to write a submission to Parliament, opposing this repeal bill. For instructions on making a submission, head to the submission instructions section.
What is the Plain Language Act?
The Plain Language Act requires NZ government agencies to ensure the language in documents they write for the public is:
- appropriate to the intended audience
- clear, concise, and well organised.
Documents it applies to include:
- benefit application forms
- immigration forms
- tax information
- justice information
- health information.
Who does plain language help?
Plain language in government communications helps everyone, but especially:
- people who have reading or learning disability
- people with English as a second language
- people with low literacy levels.
The Plain Language Act was supported unanimously in submissions by disability organisations.
People First NZ
People First NZ is a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) that is governed by, led by, and is for members with learning disability.
People First’s submission on the Plain Language Act.
…people with learning disability are at an increased risk of having their human rights compromised if they are unable to access information to make informed decisions about the things that affect their lives.
National Disabled Students’ Association
National Disabled Students’ Association’s submission on the Plain Language Act.
Citizens have a democratic right to be able to understand this [government] information. Accessible information is vital for members of the disabled community to understand their rights and duties under the law.
Deaf Action New Zealand
Deaf Action New Zealand’s submission is charmingly succinct — practically one sentence.
Deaf Action New Zealand’s submission on the Plain Language Act.
Deaf Action New Zealand supports this bill.
Blind Low Vision NZ
Blind Low Vision NZ’s submission on the Plain Language Act.
We must strive to make information, instructions, and ideas more cognitively accessible, particularly for people with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities.
First reading — what the MPs said
The first reading of the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill was held on 1 April 2025.
The first reading was truly horrifying to witness. The sheer lack of care and consideration for disabled people’s rights from National, ACT, and NZ First is deeply upsetting and offensive.
Read the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill first reading on Hansard.
Claims of government bloat caused by the Act
Several National and ACT MPs claimed the Plain Language Act caused wasteful government bloat by requiring agencies to appoint “plain language officers.”
So — how many new people were hired into these roles?
100? 200? 300?
The answer: zero.
The Public Service Commission’s guidance clearly states: “The Commissioner expects agencies to designate existing staff as their plain language officers.”
The Public Service Commission’s 2023 Annual Report confirms: “All agencies have appointed a plain language officer to oversee their plain language work. In all cases this is the appointment of an existing staff member who has had plain language responsibilities added to their role.”
In other words: no new roles, no additional hires, and no increase in headcount.
The claims of “government bloat” are blatant misinformation. These MPs are either misinformed — or are hoping the public won’t fact-check them.
Penny Simmonds (National)
Penny Simmonds was once National’s Minister for Disability Issues. Simmonds was removed from the portfolio by Christopher Luxon after significant controversy caused by the mishandling of funding issues at Whaikaha — Ministry for Disabled People. Since losing the Disability Issues portfolio, Simmonds has gone on to support the repeal of legislation that protects disabled people’s rights.
Penny’s speech on repealing the Plain Language Act is deeply contradictory — Penny repeatedly states that plain language is essential in the public service, while supporting the repeal of the Act! This is like admitting seatbelts save lives — and then arguing we should stop requiring them.
Penny Simmonds, in her speech states: “This bill is not about abandoning high standards in clear communication”, while she is literally repealing the only law requiring them.
While Minister for Disability Issues, Penny Simmonds claimed people were using disability support funding for massages, pedicures, or Lotto tickets — a deeply stigmatising generalisation that led to outrage across the disability community.
One of Penny’s more absurd claims, is that plain language is subjective and therefore should not be legislated for. However, it is rather easy to objectively measure the readability of documents in many ways, such as:
- running user testing sessions
- using algorithms like SMOG and Flesch-Kincaid to estimate readability
- monitor usage of services like Citizens Advice Bureau
- monitor activity levels in customer service channels like phone lines.
The idea that plain language is too subjective to measure is simply false. It can, and should be, objectively measured. The entire field of user experience design was invented for this very reason.
Perhaps health and safety regulations will be repealed next, because “safety” is a subjective term.
Karen Chhour (National)
Karen Chhour is the Minister for Children.
Karen Chhour’s speech supporting the repeal of the Plain Language Act is possibly the most horrifying in the entire debate.
She starts by stating that she first believed the Plain Language Act was satire — because asking public servants to write in a way the public can comprehend is laughable to her.
Karen Chhour’s most astounding statement in the speech is the following:
When I first became a Minister—I do understand—sometimes you get documents across your desk and you’re looking at all these acronyms and words you may not understand and you do have to have a word with them and say, “Hey, could you please bring this back to me in a language I can understand?” And that’s pretty simple. “Please bring it back to me in a language I can understand.” And guess what? The next time it came across my desk, it was in a language I could understand. I didn’t need an officer to stand over those public servants and make sure that they wrote it in plain language for myself. It’s not that difficult.
This statement is incredibly concerning, because it ignores the power imbalance between ministers and the public.
Karen basically says “when my agency that I’m Minister for, gives me confusing documents, I can just ask them to rewrite them for me 🤗”.
Karen seems to have forgotten one key fact: the public are not Ministers! The public do not have the luxury of commanding an agency to do whatever they wish. Plain language is “not that difficult” to get from an agency, claims Karen — you just need to be extremely privileged and powerful by holding a ministerial portfolio.
This legislation was not intended to help people like Karen, who can command an agency to rewrite documents at a whim. This legislation was here to benefit the public who do not have that luxury.
What is even more absurd — is that Karen Chhour is the Minister for Children, a population group with low literacy levels. Instead of supporting accessible communication for this group, she mocks it — and calls it a joke.
Conclusion — A pattern of National harm: from gutting Whaikaha to repealing rights
This Government has already shown contempt for disabled people. It began by gutting Whaikaha — Ministry for Disabled People — the one agency dedicated to protecting our rights.
National stripped Whaikaha of its core function: providing Disability Support Services. These were handed to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), an agency widely known for its rigid, inflexible, and punitive approach to welfare. Many disabled people live with trauma from interacting with MSD — including myself.
Now, the Government is destroying one of the few pieces of legislation in the last decade that actually improved disability rights.
Make a submission!
You have until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 14 May 2025 to write a submission to Parliament, opposing this repeal bill.
Please, make your voice heard. If you need help writing a submission, feel free to reach out to me — or even generate one with AI — submissions must be unique in order for them to be counted.
To make an AI submission, copy all the text in this article, paste it into an AI tool like ChatGPT, and add the prompt “please draft a submission to Parliament based on this article”.
To make an online submission, go here:
Plain Language Act Repeal Bill — NZ Parliament.
— Callum
Need accessibility help?
If you want support with accessibility audits, automated testing, or building inclusive digital services — I’d love to help.
Changelog
Last updated on: 29 April 2025
- 19/04/2025 — added section on “Claims of government bloat caused by the Act”