CTHRepealedAct
Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981
83Refusal to be sworn or to answer questions
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 83
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981.
#### 83 Refusal to be sworn or to answer questions
(1) A person appearing as a witness before the Disciplinary Tribunal shall not refuse or fail:
(a) to be sworn or to make an affirmation;
(b) to answer a question that he or she is required to answer by the Tribunal; or
(c) to produce a document that he or she was required to produce by a summons under this Act served on him or her as prescribed.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 6 months.
(1A) Subsection (1) does not apply if the person has a reasonable excuse.
> Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in subsection (1A) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code).
(2) A person appearing as a witness before the Disciplinary Tribunal shall not give evidence that is false or misleading.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 6 months.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), it is a reasonable excuse for such a person to refuse or fail to answer a question or to produce a document if the answer to the question, or the production of the document, may tend to prove that the person has committed an offence against a law or, in the case of an AFP appointee, that the appointee has been guilty of a breach of discipline.
(4) Where the Disciplinary Tribunal is inquiring into a matter into which the Tribunal has, under section 70, been directed to inquire, a person appearing before the Tribunal to give evidence or produce documents is not excused from answering a question or producing a document on the ground that the answer to the question, or the production of the document, may tend to prove that the person has committed an offence against a law or, in the case of an AFP appointee, that the appointee has been guilty of a breach of discipline.
(5) Evidence given by a person, or the production by a person of a document, upon an inquiry referred to in subsection (4) is not admissible against the person in any civil or criminal proceedings other than proceedings for an offence against this section or against section 35 or 36 of the Crimes Act 1914.