Passive voice isn't a crime. It's usually just fog.
'Your application was not approved.' Approved by whom? The sentence has removed the one thing an unhappy reader wants to know: who decided, and so who to talk to.
That's what passive voice does. It's not ungrammatical, and it's not always wrong. It just deletes the actor — and in government writing, the actor is usually the point.
And yes, this article's own passive count runs high. Every quoted example is a passive. That's the kind of flag you dismiss with a clear conscience.
How to spot it
The pattern is a form of 'to be' plus a past participle: was written, is being reviewed, has been decided. If you can add 'by the department' after the verb and the sentence still works, it's passive.
Government writing runs high on passives for an honest reason. Habit treats naming the actor as a risk. 'A decision was made' feels safer than 'we decided'. But the Style Manual's guidance on voice is blunt: active voice is clearer, and clarity is the obligation.
When passive earns its place
Keep a passive when the actor is unknown: 'the window was broken overnight'. Keep it when the actor doesn't matter: 'the form was lodged in 1998'. Keep it when the receiver is the real subject: 'the patient was transferred to intensive care'. These are real uses. They're also rare. On most government pages, fewer than 1 passive in 10 survives an honest look.
The test
For each passive, ask one question: would the reader act differently if they knew who does this? 'Your payment will be reviewed' — by Centrelink? by a contractor? automatically? The answer changes what the reader does next, so the actor belongs in the sentence.
Keep yourself honest with a number
You won't catch your own passives by re-reading — they're invisible in your own prose because you know who the actor is. A checker doesn't. We built Confetti, which highlights every passive as you type and shows what share of your sentences carry one. Under 5% is a good target for public content. It runs entirely in your browser, so drafts never leave your machine.
Then make the calls. A page where you chose every passive is fine. A page where you noticed none is fog.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Did this land?
I write these to be used, not just read. Tell me if this wouldn't work in your organisation, and why.