Right to silence is too important to lose

The move to dilute the right to silence in NSW is unjust, constitutionally questionable and unnecessary.

The O'Farrell government announced a “watering down” of right to silence laws in response to bikie gang violence. Amendments to the Evidence Act will be introduced to allow juries to draw adverse inferences from those who produce evidence at trial after refusing to answer questions from police.

The principle that no person is obliged to incriminate themself is an indispensable element of the panoply of safeguards that secure the citizen’s personal liberty against state oppression. The criminal justice system in common law countries excludes involuntary confessions, bans torture, upholds the presumption of innocence, requires proof of criminal charges beyond reasonable doubt and excludes irrelevant and unreliable evidence.

The right to remain silent is part of this system that was established in the seventeenth century revolt against the practices of the Star Chamber and the High Commission.

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