Plain English Manual

Chapter 2 - Planning the draft

WHAT THIS CHAPTER IS ABOUT

21. Much of this Manual concentrates on the ways to present ideas clearly in a draft Bill. This chapter deals with the equally important topic of planning a drafting project before starting to draft the Bill.

22. The ideas in this chapter are suggestions only. If you have a different approach that works better for you, stick to it.

THE BENEFITS OF PLANNING

Better planning results in a better Bill

23. There’s a close connection between the clarity of thought that goes into designing a legislative scheme and the clarity of the text that embodies it. A well thought out, clear and simple scheme is much easier to put into clear and well arranged text. Also, clear, simple concepts are easier to use than vague or intricate ones. You can do a lot in the early stages of the drafting process to avoid complexities that could arise later.

24. Drafting is like designing and building a machine. Just as a machine is designed to perform a particular function, an Act is also designed to perform a particular function. For example, an Act might be designed to regulate the sale of dangerous goods; to raise money; or to protect the environment.

25. A machine built without a plan isn’t usually very successful. Similarly a draft Bill prepared without previous planning may be more complicated and less clear than a Bill prepared with the benefit of a detailed plan. By settling a detailed plan before starting to draft, you can select the drafting structure, terminology and approach that best suit the function of the draft.

Avoid “band aid fixes”

26. If you make fundamental changes to the design of a machine during construction, you’re likely to run into serious problems. You may have to choose between starting again (and losing time) or ending up with a poorly designed machine. Imagine how you would feel if you had almost finished building a vehicle that was to run on petrol, and you were told at the last moment that it should also be able to run on electricity.

27. You can have similar problems if you start to prepare a draft without having first agreed with the instructors on the basic aims and critical building blocks of the Bill. For example, if you’ve prepared a detailed Bill to regulate the payment of dividends by companies, it’ll be very difficult to give effect to a last minute policy decision that the rules should also apply “in a similar way” to distributions by trusts. The more you plan the Bill with your instructors before drafting it, the less likely it is that they will ask for fundamental changes at an advanced stage of the drafting.

Concentrate on substance instead of form

28. If you begin drafting before settling a plan, you risk getting unduly distracted by thinking about drafting points instead of concentrating on what the draft is meant to do. Also, drafting points might distract your instructors from their important job of first considering and settling all the policy issues.
“Fine tune” terminology and ways to present information

29. Discussing the plan with your instructors can be a useful way to test the suitability of terms that you might use in the Bill. If a term causes misunderstanding during discussions, try to choose a better one.

30. While planning a draft, you have an opportunity to try different ways of recording the rules (eg tables and diagrams). You have the added benefit of getting comments from your instructors about the clarity (or otherwise) of a particular way to present information.

Improve your understanding of your instructors’ goals

31. In a plan, you can write in a less technical way than in a draft (eg without the constraints of subsections, paragraphs etc). You can also put extra explanations in the plan that wouldn’t normally be included in a Bill (eg explanations of matters that are dealt with in the Acts Interpretation Act, Crimes Act etc). As a result, it’s likely that your instructors will better understand the effect of the plan, and you will better understand what your instructors want.

PRODUCING A GOOD PLAN

Identify the goals

32. It’s a great help to planning if you can establish the main goals and principles at an early stage. These can then be used as a benchmark for testing the more detailed rules needed to achieve the goals.

Reduce the number and complexity of the concepts

33. Complicated ideas lead to a complicated Bill. Your final Bill will be simpler (and probably shorter) if your plan is based on the smallest number of pieces (concepts) that are needed to perform the function of the Bill. An important part of the planning process is to work towards identifying this ideal minimum.

34. A concept must earn its place. Identify the role of a particular concept before accepting that it’ll be included in the Bill.

35. Look out for variations on the same theme. For example, you may be asked to set up systems of regulations, Ministerial determinations and Ministerial orders, each with the goal of identifying prohibited imports. Before starting to design the 3 systems, find out whether a single system would achieve your instructors’ goals.

Concentrate on the important principles

36. Some matters are so fundamental that any late changes will cause serious drafting problems. Identify and emphasise these matters. Other matters aren’t likely to have much impact on the general structure and concepts of the Bill. Don’t waste too much of the early planning time in trying to settle the fine details of the matters that don’t affect the structure or main principles of the draft.

Make sure your instructors understand the plan

37. One of the most important functions of the plan is to settle important policy issues before you start to draft. It’s therefore crucial that your instructors are involved in formulating the plan and fully understand it.

38. The more you help your instructors understand the plan, the less likely it is that they’ll want fundamental changes after you start drafting. Don’t be content merely to state the rules. Go on to explain and emphasise their effects, which may be obvious to you but not so obvious to your instructors. Examples are a useful way to do this.

39. Make the plan easy to understand and easy to navigate (eg by including cross references and a table of contents). The easier it is for your instructors to use, the more likely it is that they’ll read it and understand it. Making special efforts to produce a user friendly plan is also good practice for making the Bill more user friendly.

Record things that will not be included in the Bill

40. From time to time during the planning stage, you’ll agree with your instructors that particular matters will not be included in the Bill, eg because they’ll be dealt with administratively or by regulations. Record these agreements in the plan so that you don’t have to reopen discussions later when the agreement may have been forgotten. Of course, Government policy may change later, but it’s still useful to have a record of the original agreement.

AIDS TO PLANNING

Introduction

41. If you choose to prepare a detailed plan before starting to draft the Bill, you have to develop a method of recording the current state of the plan. This section discusses some of the methods you can use to develop and record your plan.

Tables

42. Tables are a useful way to record some aspects of a drafting plan. Appendix 1 has examples of tables that could be used in the planning process.

Notes in normal text form

43. If some of the plan can’t be usefully presented in the form of tables, you can use normal text layout (preferably prepared with a word processing program or similar program that allows easy revision).

Diagrams

44. Diagrams can be an excellent planning tool. A functional diagram of the important rules in the plan can be a useful focus or testing ground in discussions with instructors. Decision diagrams can help to clarify rules and identify errors of logic. Also, if you’ve found them very useful in discussions, you might include them in the Bill.

45. Appendix 2 has examples of diagrams that could be used in the planning process.

White board

46. A white board can be an excellent aid to discussions with instructors during the planning phase. You can use it to draw diagrams to illustrate a particular problem or proposal, or to sketch out in words the important elements of a particular rule. It’s often much easier for your instructors to analyse a proposal on the white board than to comment on a purely oral description. Recording an agreed diagram can also be a quick way of recording policy decisions.

CONSULTATION

47. If you use the “plan before you draft” system, the first draft Bill won’t be ready until near the end of the project. You might therefore have to have consultations with Departments, etc on the basis of the plan rather than on the basis of the draft Bill. In effect, you have to find alternatives to the standard Office procedures by which the draft Bill is the vehicle for consultation.