New laws passed by Parliament grant the State Coroner greater powers to compel witnesses to give potentially self-incriminating evidence at an inquest.
Acting Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Stirling Hinchliffe said the laws were aimed at unlocking longstanding unresolved cases.
“While coroners were handed powers to require self-incriminating evidence from witnesses in 2003, this only applied to deaths occurring after that date,” Mr Hinchliffe said.
“For deaths prior to 2003, witnesses could refuse to give self-incriminating evidence, which made it harder for coroners to find out what actually happened.”
He said this led to the creation of a hard core of remaining cases that had not received the benefit of the modern coronial regime and remained unresolved to this day.
“By allowing coroners to compel witnesses to give self-incriminating evidence for deaths occurring prior to 2003, we hope to see some of these cases resolved,” the Minister said.
Mr Hinchliffe said that appropriate safeguards had been included in the Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, which amended the Coroners Act 2003.
“The coroner may not require a person to give evidence that may incriminate them unless satisfied it is in the public interest,” he said.
“Further, evidence given is not admissible against a person in any criminal proceeding, with the exception of perjury.”
He said these were important and necessary changes to Queensland’s coronial system.
“We are confident they will serve the interests of justice,” Mr Hinchliffe said.
