Taxpayers foot bill to teach highly paid bureaucrats how to use plain English

Taxpayers will pick up the bill for hundreds of highly paid senior public servants to learn how to speak “plain English”.

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Senior government bureaucrats, including some with six-figure salaries, will be given taxpayer-funded classes to teach them to speak in “plain English.”

Up to 200 government employees who work for the Department of Human Services will take part in the classes next year, according to tender documents seen by News Corp.

The department is on the hunt for jargon-busting trainers who will fly to Canberra to teach staff “writing in easy or simple English” — at the taxpayers’ expense.

Department of Human Services’ general manager Hank Jongen.

Government documents reveal the staff targeted by the department will “already be competent writers” and ranked at between APS 6 to ELS2. According the Australian Public Service Commission, a bureaucrat at that level would — at a minimum — “undertake work that is complex in nature” and earn anywhere between $80,000 and $137,000.

The total training bill is yet to be released, but a similar course for 150 NSW public servants in 2016 cost the public more than $137,000.

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Labor slammed the move, claiming the Department of Human Services, which manages payments such as drought relief assistance, had made it “as difficult as possible for Australians to claim income support”.

Opposition Human Services spokesman Ed Husic said: “Hard-to-understand forms and difficult Centrelink processes have locked out many average Australians needing access to the age pension or drought assistance.”

Department of Human Services’ general manager Hank Jongen defended the taxpayer-funded training.

“It’s really important our communication is easily understood as we serve people from diverse backgrounds and reading abilities, including those with low literacy,” Mr Jongen said.