The right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right is recognised under Australia’s international human rights obligations. All Australians should have access to adequate housing in fulfilment of their human rights. The human right to housing is also pivotal in ensuring the realisation of many other human rights.

NSWCCL supports the aims of the Bill which enshrines a human rights-based approach to housing in legislation. In Australia, the lack of a meaningful and well-informed national housing plan has undoubtedly contributed to the current housing crisis, placing millions of people under significant social and economic pressure. Home ownership affordability, an increasingly competitive rental market and stagnant public housing availability and poor housing accessibility for people living with disability are all by-products of this crisis.

The national housing crisis in Australia is not a recent phenomenon, it was identified in the 2006 country visit by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. The Special Rapporteur noted the seriousness of the national housing crisis and its direct and critical impact on the most vulnerable groups in Australia, particularly since Australia is one of the wealthiest economically developed countries and has a comparatively small population. This is a desperate call for reform.

NSWCCL also supports principles of responsible government where the Executive are held accountable to the Australian people, ensuring the right to adequate and accessible housing is appropriately respected. In best practice, Executive accountability is achieved by enshrining policy in legislation and by implementing a federal human rights act.

NSWCCL has, for many years, supported the introduction of a federal human rights act so that universal respect and enhanced protections for human rights could be realised in Australia.

Our submission focuses on:

• Key international human rights instruments that impose binding obligations on Australia, particularly in respect to the right to adequate housing;
• The importance of the principle of responsible government in enshrining a national housing plan in legislation; and
• The need for a federal human rights act in Australia.

Read our submission here.