NSW Do I have to answer police questions when pulled over?

[markjohn68]

It used to be that the police could only ask your name and address, and you had to produce your drivers license (per link below). Now they can interrogate you about where you're going, why you're going there, who you're traveling with, and who you're going to see. How come?

If you refuse to answer their questions, I wonder if the resulting fine would hold up in court? Are there emergency laws in place? Curious.

ROAD TRANSPORT ACT 2013 - SECT 175 Requirement for driver or rider to produce Australian driver licence and state name and address

www8.austlii.edu.au

 

[Tim W]

What happened?

If it happened in the last few days or so, then chances are,
they were looking at you for a breach of the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020.
(hopefully, the link works...)

 

[Atticus]

Are there emergency laws in place?

Hmmm.. Unless you have literally just crawled out from under a rock in the wilderness, I don't think the ignorance card is going to work .... Tim is right. Check out the link

 

[markjohn68]

Hmmm.. Unless you have literally just crawled out from under a rock in the wilderness, I don't think the ignorance card is going to work .... Tim is right. Check out the link

That wasn't my point at all. And so our personal liberties are erased with the stroke of a politician's pen...

 

[markjohn68]

What happened?

If it happened in the last few days or so, then chances are,
they were looking at you for a breach of the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020.
(hopefully, the link works...)

Thank you, Tim.

 

[Atticus]

That wasn't my point at all. And so our personal liberties are erased with the stroke of a politician's pen...

Temporarily .... To help save your's & others lives...... I'll live with it

 

[Tim W]

That wasn't my point at all. And so our personal liberties are erased with the stroke of a politician's pen...

We knew what you were getting at.
And you sort of correct. Sort of.
But maybe not in the way you might think.

While some human right in Australia have a statutory basis,
in Australia, many human rights only exist to the extent
that there is no law in effect regulating them regulating or limiting them.
And, subject to any law that does, such as above order.

Even so, it's not politician's unfettered whimsy.
It's more complicated than that.

 

[sammy01]

I'm taking it as a given that you're talking about Corona virus.

The countries that espouse citizen's rights above the collective good are the ones with the biggest death toll. Italy, USA and Spain all have smaller populations than China. They all had more time to prepare for this BUT they all have lost more lives than China or South Korea.

Ordinarily - Name, address and providing driver licence. These are not ordinary times. Our desire for individual freedoms is killing people. Stay at home.