Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

the right to silence, allowing individual juries to draw an adverse inference if people accused of a crime chose not to take part in police interviews but later relied on evidence they did not disclose.

The right to silence since time immemorial has provided significant legal safeguards for people who come before the justice system, especially those who are vulnerable—people like Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who suffer some of the worst rates of incarceration in this country. But what do the Liberals do? Abolish the right to silence that will see even more Aboriginal people get incarcerated. Those on that side of the House are very big on talk when it comes to their little civil liberties bandwagons, but when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are, they abolish the right to silence—a fundamental right in New South Wales, gone. It is a disgrace.

Honourable members interjecting—

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