Annika Smethurst: Why can’t bureaucrats speak plain English?

Thanks to taxpayers, up to 200 bureaucrats will be trained to avoid using more words than they need. Thousands of our dollars will be spent on classes to teach smart folk in the public service plain English, Annika Smethurst writes.

• Taxpayers foot bill to teach public servants how to use English
• No end in sight for ScoMo’s 100 days of hell

One of the least desirable parts of being a political ­reporter is dealing with the public service.

As people, they can be delightful. It’s their jargon-infected language I despise.

Take this quote I received from a tax office communication team last week: “Enterprise policy is supported operationally by internal procedures which help ensure the ATO is assisting staff and satisfying its obligations.” What?

Now, thanks to the generosity of the taxpayer, up to 200 bureaucrats with the Department of Human Services will be trained to avoid using more words than they need.

Thousands of our dollars on classes to teach smart folk in the public service “plain English”? Is it too much to ask that senior staff (APS6 to EL2 level, more jargon that I’ll explain later) write emails or compile reports using clear language?

Thousands of taxpayer dollars will be spent on classes to teach the public service plain English, Annika Smethurst writes.

Apparently so. It feels ­unfair that my taxes will, in part, fund classes to try to stop otherwise intelligent people from taking the longest and least direct way to say nothing.

Or it seemed that way until I was reminded of ­another ­encounter with senior public servants recently.

During a meeting with department officials I was asked to jot down the number of the “digital imaging and multimedia specialist”.

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My blank stare prompted the bureaucrat to rephrase that five-word doozy to “photographer”.

Far from being inclusive, this jargon is difficult to understand and isolates civil servants from the very people they are meant to serve — you and me.

To show how widespread the problem is, the plain ­English-speaking foundation recently released its worst words or phrases of the year.

The winner for the past 12 months was former ABC chairman Justin Milne who described his plan to sack a journo as helping the ­unwanted scribe seek “external career development opportunities”.

Former ABC chairman Justin Milne has a way with words, Annika Smethurst writes. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The banking royal commission was in the firing line with hefty staff bonuses described as “short-term variable remuneration (to) elicit discretionary efforts”.

But this is nothing new. Mid-last century British civil servant Sir Ernest Gowers was asked to whip up a manual instructing public servants on how to avoid jargon.

His books have never gone out of print, but little has changed. So fed up was he with the language of his staff, former British PM David Cameron began an “award for clarity” in 2015 to encourage “straightforward” language across Whitehall.

But I digress. The Morrison government’s plan to stamp out complicated language will see staff ranging from level APS 6 to ELS2 offered “plain English” classes.

According to the Australian Public Service Commission website, an APS 6 is described as a staff member who can “provide detailed technical, professional, and/or policy advice in relation to complex problems and may assist in strategic planning, program and project management and policy development”.

Need I say more?