Inquiry into homelessness legislation
Make your submission to the inquiry into homelessness legislation
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth is conducting an inquiry into homelessness legislation. This follows the federal government's release, on 21 December 2008, of its White Paper, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness.
In this paper, the government pledged to 'enact new legislation to ensure that people who are homeless receive quality services and adequate support.'
The Terms of Reference for the inquiry can be found at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/fchy/homelessness/index.htm
The Australian Human Rights Commission will make a submission to the inquiry, and we encourage all stakeholders in Australia to participate.
The Commission considers that any response to homelessness in Australia must adopt a human rights-based approach if it is to be effective.
The focus of the Commission's submission will therefore be on three key human rights principles: the right to adequate housing; the right to substantive equality; and the right to participation. The Commission will focus on how these should be incorporated into any new legislation and how they should be taken into account in the law-making process.
The following materials may assist other organisations and service providers to make their own submission:
Commission materials
- Issues Paper on Homelessness as a Human Rights Issue (February 2008): http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/housing/homelessness_2008.html
- Commission's Submission to the Green Paper on Homelessness -Which Way Home? (4 July 2008):
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/legal/submissions/2008/20080704_homelessness.html - Commissioner Innes's recent Speech to the CEO Sleepout:
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/speeches/human_rights/2009/20090618_sleepout.html
Other materials - Australian
- White Paper on Homelessness, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness (December 2008): http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/housing/progserv/homelessness/whitepaper/Pages/default.aspx
- Righting the Wrongs of Homelessness: PILCH Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic Submission to the National Human Rights Consultation (15 June 2009):
http://www.pilch.org.au/Assets/Files/FINAL%20HPLC%20submission%20-%20HR%20Consulation%20-%2015%20June%202009%5B1%5D.pdf - Counting the Homeless 2006: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10832
- Homelessness Australia: http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/
- PILCH (Vic) Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic:http://www.pilch.org.au/hplc/
Other materials - International
- Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
- General Comments: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/comments.htm
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing - Mission to Australia: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/housing/visits.htm