Empowering Australian Financial Consumers through Plain English Legislative Drafting

This paper addresses the legislative morass that has been observed in Australia, in which legislation for the protection of financial consumers is impenetrable, confusing, incoherently organised, spread over multiple pieces of legislation, contradictory, excessively lengthy, and drafted in a manner that obfuscates meaning and is inaccessible to the average (or indeed, sophisticated) consumer. It discusses how such legislation is antithetical to the principles of the rule of law. It provides evidence from other jurisdictions of the effective use of plain English drafting, as well as the benefits of stark language use in drafting – an advance on plain English. Informed by linguistic analysis and techniques, it provides examples of how legislation can be re-written so as to be brief, accessible, useful and intelligible to consumers. Finally, it makes a recommendation for institutionalising these techniques for future legislative drafting.