Silence not necessarily golden - privilege in an employment context

The common law privilege against self-incrimination is a well-established legal principle, long recognised by Australian courts as an essential protection.

To invoke the privilege, a person must have a "real and appreciable danger of conviction (or penalty)".¹

Unless excluded by statute, it acts to safeguard individuals from answering questions that may incriminate the entity they own or work for and/or themselves as well as from producing incriminating evidence. ²

The underlying reason for this privilege is that it is morally unjust to compel a person to expose themselves to punishment or to forfeit a right. The privilege also helps to uphold the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.