Right to silence

Act has undertaken to change the law to end the “so-called right to silence” for child abusers. Deputy leader Beth Houlbrooke said the abuse of a 4-year-old boy in Flaxmere was completely abhorrent, made worse by the fact that no one from his family would say what happened to him. Andrew Little, she added, had said that New Zealanders would not accept ending the right to silence, and that he would not compel child abusers to talk, but there were already various exceptions to the right to silence in law. “Little needs to explain why Fisheries and Customs officers, and even liquidators, can demand information from people, but police investigating child abuse cannot,” she said.