No. With two narrow exceptions, you do not have to answer police questions in the Northern Territory, and you cannot be punished for staying quiet.
That is the short answer. The longer answer matters, because the exceptions are real and because most people who talk to police do it believing they are helping themselves.
The two things you do have to say
Your name and address. If a police officer believes on reasonable grounds that you may be able to help with inquiries into an offence, they can require you to state your name and the address where you usually live or work, and to produce evidence of who you are. Refusing is an offence, and so is giving false details. The officer has to tell you why they are asking. If they do not, that is often a defence to the charge.
You are also entitled to ask the officer for their name, rank and place of duty, in writing.
Your licence, if you are driving. A driver must produce their licence and state their name and address when asked. The penalty for refusing is significantly higher than the general one.
Everything else is optional.
What the caution actually means
Before police question you in custody, they must tell you that you do not have to say anything and that anything you do say may be given in evidence.
Read that second half again. There is no third option where what you say helps you. A record of interview is evidence for the prosecution. It is not your chance to put your side.
If your explanation is a good one, your lawyer can put it to the prosecutor in writing later, without you being cross-examined on the way you phrased it at three in the morning.
Police must also tell you that you can contact a friend or relative to say where you are, and they must hold off questioning for a reasonable time so you can do it. Use that time to ask for a lawyer.
Why "just explaining" goes wrong
We see the same three patterns.
The explanation contains an admission. People say "I only had four" or "it was only for personal use" or "I pushed him but he started it," not realising they have just proved an element of the charge the prosecution would otherwise have had to work for.
The account shifts. Nobody's memory is perfect at speed, under stress, at night. Small differences between what you said in the interview and what you say later become the prosecution's cross-examination.
The interview fills a gap in the case. Sometimes the evidence is thin, and the only thing that makes the charge provable is the interview. Staying silent costs you nothing in those cases and can decide the outcome.
If you are Aboriginal
The Anunga Rules apply to the questioning of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, and they are taken seriously by the courts. Among other things, an interpreter should be used where the person is not reasonably fluent in English, a prisoner's friend should be present, the caution must be given with real care, and the person should be asked to explain the caution back in their own words rather than simply nodding along.
Police General Orders build on these. Where they have not been followed, a court can rule the interview out. This is one of the first things we look at.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency provides free advice and representation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Darwin, Katherine, Alice Springs and on remote circuit.
What to say
You do not need a speech. Something like:
"I'll give you my name and address. I don't want to answer any other questions and I want to speak to a lawyer."
Then stop. Do not answer some questions and not others. That is worse than answering none, because the pattern of what you would not discuss becomes obvious.
Stay polite. Do not resist, do not obstruct, do not give false details. Those are separate offences, and they are avoidable ones.
Talk to us before the interview, not after
If police have asked you to come in for an interview, you have time to get advice first. That is the single most useful phone call you will make in the whole matter.