All people, regardless of their physical ability, have the democratic right to serve on a jury. But right now, people in NSW who are Deaf or hard of hearing are denied this fundamental democratic right.

In NSW, the Deaf community are unable to exercise their democratic right to serve on a jury, due to a discriminatory interpretation of our laws that considers an Auslan interpreter as an “unlawful 13th person” which creates a “risk of the jury being influenced by an outsider”. 

This is despite people that are Deaf or hard of hearing and people that have difficulty communicating in English being able to access interpreter services, including Auslan interpretation, in any other capacity in the courts. 

In June last year, all political parties unanimously passed a Greens motion calling on the NSW Government to allow blind and Deaf people to exercise their democratic right to perform jury duty by having an interpreter or stenographer with them to interpret or transcribe proceedings or jury deliberations. But on 7 May this year, when the opportunity to legislate this right emerged, both Labor and the Coalition chose to vote against the Greens amendment that would have allowed all people in NSW to serve on a jury regardless of their disability by requiring that reasonable support be given to support them. 

Deaf people are supported to serve on juries with the assistance of an interpreter in the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. In 2006, the NSW Law Reform Commission recommended allowing Deaf people to qualify to serve on juries. Ten years later, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) found that Australia violated its human rights obligations in denying Deaf people this right. Following this ruling, the ACT became the first Australian jurisdiction to implement this law reform in 2018. 

People with disability, advocates and legal professionals have been calling for this vital reform for decades — NSW must uphold the democratic rights of people who are Deaf or hard of hearing by allowing them to fully participate in all areas of political and public life. 

Send an email to Labor and the Coalition, demanding they urgently implement this reform to allow people who are Deaf or hard of hearing the democratic right to serve as jurors.