Review of the UN report on Australian's right to housing

The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (SRAH) visited Australia in 2006, and presented this report to the United Nations General Assembly (which received some media attention). The Report made a number of significant recommendations, including:

• Adopting a comprehensive and coordinated national housing policy and creating a dedicated Ministry of Housing at Federal Level that is informed by a range of stakeholders including people affected by inadequate housing and members of civil society;
• Amending discrimination laws that currently make it lawful to discriminate against people on the ground that they are homeless or on social security benefits;
• Increasing legislative tenancy protection;
• Addressing homelessness and its causes as a priority;
• Repealing laws that criminalise poverty and homelessness or disproportionately impact on people experiencing homelessness such as begging laws, public drinking laws and public space laws; and
• Addressing the 'humanitarian tragedy' that is the lack of housing and basic services to indigenous Australians.

Recently, the HPLC met with the Office of the SRAH in Geneva, to discuss the Government's progress on the issues raised in the report.  The Australian Government has implemented a number of the recommendations contained in the SRAH's report, but there is still lots of work to do to ensure that Australians are able to realise their right to an adequate standard of living, including an adequate standard of housing.

The HPLC recently wrote to the new SRAH, Raquel Rolnik, asking her to follow up the report.