In New Zealand, the plain language movement started in the mid 1980s with Consumer magazine articles about gobbledegook in consumer business documents such as insurance contracts. The media gave some attention to Consumer's Gobbledegook Awards, and a Plain English Campaign headquarters was established. In the government sector, departments and agencies were cautious about adopting plain language.

In 1985, the New Zealand Labour government established the Law Commission, an organisation designed to undertake legal research, write reports and make recommendations to the Minister of Justice. One of the main aims of the Law Commission is to provide practical suggestions for making legislation as understandable and accessible as possible. In 1993, the Law Commission published Report No 27, The Format of Legislation, which promoted changes to the standard typography and design of New Zealand statutes that would increase reader comprehension.

The Law Commission has since published other reports, including the June 1996 Legislation Manual: Structure and Style, which included a set of plain language guidelines for the use of legal drafters. The adoption of the guiding principles and their subsequent effect on New Zealand statutes were left up to the enthusiasm of individual drafters within various government bodies, the drafting policy of those bodies and the policy and direction of the Parliamentary Counsel Office.

By 1988 the Ministry of Consumer Affairs was producing plain language standard forms for credit contracts and the Public Trust Office was advertising and using plain language legal documents.

In the early 1990s the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the New Zealand Ministry of Transport employed private firms specialising in plain language and document design to re-design standard forms, resulting in reduced error rates and considerable cost savings for these government agencies.