Electricity Division wins gobbledegook award

Press, 3 July 1986, Page 6

Electricity Division wins gobbledegook award

PA , ; Auckland . The Electricity Division has won the 1986 Consumer - Council Gobbledegook Award. - , Its winning words — judged: to be the worstwritten language from a public body or company — were found in a series of four letters to electrical supply authorities between 1984 and January this year. The K four letters con-tained-safety information about fuel pump electrical wiring; Each of the letters tried to clarify its predecessor, and the Consumer Council said misinterpretation of this information could be hazardous.

The , Electricity Division’s general manager,

Mr Kevin McCool, wiiose name appeared on one of the award-winning letters, admitted to being embarrassed by the attention.

But he said the letters dealt with technical problems, “and even if they were re-written, I have a feeling they might still qualify for a Gobbledegook Award.” The runners-up were A.I.C. Charge Card Services, for conditions of use on a credit card, Eketahuna County Council, for a notice to residents, and A.A. Finance, for its company meeting notice. For the first time the Consumers’ Institute and the Plain English Campaign have made a Plain English Award.

The first winner was the Public Trust, for its simplified wills. New Zealand Insurance gained an honourable mention for its ..simplified household contents. insurance documents.

Plain English wills were introduced by the Public Trust in March to enable people’s last wishes to be clearly understood, said the Public Trustee, Mr Bill Hawkins. The new wills removed what was regarded as surplus language and broke long paragraphs into clauses with clearly identifiable headings. “We wanted to project ourselves as a progressive trustee organisation and it is very difficult to do that when using language that seems to belong closer to the nineteenth century,” Mr Hawkins said. The Public Trust Office assisted 30,000 people each year with their wills, but research had shown that 702,000 New Zealanders between the ages of 20 and 40 did not have a will, he said.