Submission: National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024 (No. 2)

22 August 2024

Amnesty International Australia has made a submission to the National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024 (No. 2).

Housing is a human right. Australia has agreed to recognise housing as a human right by ratifying the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1975. Despite this, successive federal governments have failed to legislate protections for the right to housing in our laws.

In recent years, dramatic increases in house prices, a rise in rent, increasing demand for housing, alongside a cost of living crisis have created a housing crisis.

The National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024 would require the Housing Minister to develop and implement a 10 year housing and homelessness plan. The Bill also enshrines the right to housing as an objective to guide the plan and policy making.

The Bill's recognition of housing as a human right, establishment of a national housing plan, and its commitment to consultation with people with lived experience of homelessness, is an important step to realising the right to adequate housing for everyone in Australia.

Amnesty International Australia also calls on the government to legislate a Human Rights Act that will protect the right to housing alongside the rights to health, education, protection from degrading treatment, and more.

By protecting human rights in our federal laws with a Human Rights Act we can work towards an Australia where people's rights are realised, and where everyone is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Human Rights Acts prevent human rights abuses by requiring public entities to consider human rights when making decisions, and they empower people with a tool with which everyone can fight for their human rights, and hold those in power to account. Learn more about what we do and our campaign for a federal Human Rights Act.