Govt.nz website wins plain English award

30 November 2015

The website Govt.nz won the ‘Best Plain English website’ award for the public sector at the recent WriteMark Plain English awards, held this month in Wellington.

“We are committed to speaking the language of our users. All of the information on the site has been written in plain English and is organised around our users’ needs,” says Peter Murray, Deputy Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs.

The awards are the industry benchmark for high standards in plain English. They help raise the bar for clear communication in both the public and private sector.

“Winning this award is a credit to all the hard work our team has put in to making Govt.nz easy to use. A huge amount of effort goes in to making government language easy to read and understand and the team really deserves this award,” says Mr Murray.

Govt.nz was launched in July 2014. Information on the site has been pulled together from 44 different government departments. It is written and presented in the way people search for information, rather than by government structure.

“There is long standing evidence that plain language improves understanding, so we’ve designed the site so people of all literacy levels can find what they need. Our goal is to provide information that’s easy to find, access and use. The user experience is at the centre of everything we do,” adds Mr Murray.

This award follows on from Govt.nz winning the ‘Information’ category at the 2015 Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards.

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Media contact:

Danielle Crooks
Govt.nz Communications Advisor
danielle.crooks@dia.govt.nz
022 077 9827 | 04 462 0392