Thursday, 26 February 2026
Chair
Matt McKillop, Barrister, Masons Lane Chambers
Learning Objectives:
- Understand contemporary trends in legislative drafting, including the impact of the Plain Language Act 2022
- Apply plain language principles to improve clarity, transparency and interpretive outcomes in legislative and advisory contexts
Legislative Drafting & Reform
- Trends in contemporary legislative drafting in New Zealand
- Plain Language Act 2022, mandating clear communication in government documents.
- How plain drafting improves transparency and citizen engagement.
- Use of plain language and its interpretive consequences
Presented by Christopher Finlayson KC, Bankside Chambers
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD hour
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
Presenters
Matt McKillop, Barrister, Masons Lane Chambers
Matt is a barrister at Masons Lane Chambers in Wellington with a broad public law practice. He has appeared as lead and junior counsel in courts at every level, from the Supreme Court to the Human Rights Review Tribunal, litigating a wide range of issues from human rights and discrimination law to judicial review, criminal appeals, and civil claims. He acts both for and against a range of Crown and public sector clients. Matt has a particular interest in mental health and disability, and its intersection with criminal law and legal capacity. Matt was previously a lawyer in the Constitutional and Human Rights team at Crown Law for nine years.
Christopher Finlayson KC, Bankside Chambers
Christopher Finlayson was born and educated in Wellington. After graduating with a BA in Latin and a LLM from Victoria University, he practised law in Wellington as a solicitor before going to the Bar in 2002. He was elected to Parliament in 2005 and became Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in 2008. Mr Finlayson held those positions until October 2017. Mr Finlayson is a foundation author of McGechan on Procedure, the leading text on the practice and procedure of the Senior Courts of New Zealand. In 2018 he received a grant from the New Zealand Law Foundation to complete a book on the Crown Māori relationship, and he has also written a book on his time in Parliament with particular emphasis on his time as Attorney-General, published in 2022. In 2013 he represented New Zealand in the International Court of Justice in a case where Australia sued Japan seeking to stop commercial whaling in the Southern Oceans. New Zealand intervened and Mr Finlayson led the case for New Zealand. In 2020 he received an honorary LLD from Victoria University for his work as Treaty Minister.
