Right to Housing in Pending NSW Human Rights Bill Could End Unfair Tenant Evictions

The ACT Supreme Court has ruled in favour of three public housing tenants living on Ngunnawal land in Canberra, who claimed their rights were breached when a program seeking to redevelop and expand such housing, sought to evict and move them to another property. And if NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong has her way, similar outcomes might soon be afforded to New South Wales tenants.

Justice Verity McWilliam found that the three Canberra tenants were denied their basic human rights and procedural fairness, as per the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT).

One of these tenants Yvette Van Loo, who is in her mid-70s, was asked to vacate in 2022, after 40 years of residing in her home. And in light of the ruling, the three tenants have been allowed to remain in their public housing homes.

This court ruling has set a precedent for ACT public housing tenants, and further, capital territory renters in general, when it comes to unfair and rights-undermining evictions, without proper consultation and right to appeal, which is procedural fairness, as well as having secured consideration of other factors related to a tenants’ life in their home.

The recent court outcome recognised that the ACT public housing units were in fact constituents’ homes. Yet, without rights protections like this in NSW, these sorts of outcomes remain unobtainable.

However, this is all set to change if the Human Rights Bill 2025 that Greens MP Leong tabled in NSW parliament last October is enacted, as this legislation, which is up for debate early next month, March 2026, contains a right to housing.

Indeed, Leong has long been advocating for more robust tenants’ rights in this state, and she successfully led the government to pass a no-grounds eviction law in 2024.

The right to housing explained

“The recent judgment in the ACT shows that a Human Rights Act is far from symbolic: it is an effective tool that people can use to get justice and fairness when public bodies have denied this,” Leong told Sydney Criminal Lawyers on Tuesday.

“The Greens Human Rights Bill that I introduced to NSW parliament is modelled off legislation already in place in the ACT, Victoria, and Queensland, and includes a standalone right to adequate housing that protects against arbitrary evictions and the withdrawal of essential services, like water and electricity,” added the NSW Greens spokesperson for human rights.

Proposed section 40 of the Human Rights Act 2026 (NSW) would contain the right to an adequate standard of living and housing. It specifies that every person deserves an adequate standard of living, which includes “adequate food, water, clothing and housing”, and it further posits that this right applies to all without discrimination.

The right further protects tenants from “unlawful or arbitrary eviction” and unlawful or arbitrary withdrawal of an essential utility service. The right to an adequate standard of living also maintains that all individuals have sufficient enough water for personal and household use, which includes enough water to prevent disease.

So, it is upon the strength of this robust right that Leong considers the NSW Supreme Court could make similar rulings to the 31 January 2026 ACT Supreme Court outcome in respect of the three public housing tenants whose homes were saved.

“After nearly three years of ramming through legislation that erodes our human rights, NSW Labor could do something positive for a change by sending our Greens bill to an inquiry for robust public consultation, when it returns to the parliamentary schedule next month – in line with the promise they took to the 2023 election to consult the community on improved human rights protections,” Leong underscored.

At the eleventh hour

Australia continues to be the only western liberal democracy on the planet without a federal Human Rights Act. However, democracy is under threat across the Global West, with a general shift to the right in politics that is being expedited by the US Trump administration. And as Leong notes, recent heavy-handed lawmaking in this state has been in keeping with this authoritarian creep.

The Albanese government progressed an inquiry into the nation’s human rights framework in March 2023, which was prompted by the Australian Human Rights Commission releasing a position paper on establishing a Human Rights Act at the national level. It recommended passing a HRA in May 2024. However, prime minister Anthony Albanese appears to have since shelved the idea.

As former High Court Justice Michael Kirby has recalled on occasion, the 1890s drafters of the Australian Constitution had considered embedding rights protections in the nation’s founding document, as is the case in the US. However, the idea was dumped when it was considered special laws that discriminated against First Peoples and Chinese people might be voided in the process.

Federal human rights legislation has been progressed periodically since 1901 federation and has always been voted down or lapsed with change of parliament. Indeed, progressing human rights has been much easier in the Australian states and territories. Such legislation further includes the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) and the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld).

Since the 2020-21 COVID lockdowns, there has been more recognition and interest in the dearth of human rights protections amongst the constituency.

NSW attorney general Michael Daley has indicated that his Labor government is willing to work with the NSW Greens on progressing a HRA for this state.

However, NSW premier Chris Minns is now in a race to the bottoms in terms of passing rights-eroding laws that violate constituents’ rights to protest and their freedom of political communication, and given this shift is only just peaking, the desire of much of the constituency to see their rights protected, may not really be a factor in the top minister’s considerations.

Rights enforcement

Sydney’s rental market has been rated the second most expensive market in the world repeatedly for the past decade. A rental crisis has been ongoing since September 2020 in this state, and indeed, nationwide. So, what is occurring is an ever-increasing housing affordability crisis, with renters often receiving excessive rental hikes that can price them out of their homes.

If Leong’s HRA is progressed and NSW finally has rights protections for its constituents, another key benefit is that in cases where an individual or a tenant considers their rights have been violated, they will be able to seek legal recourse by taking the matter to a rights dispute body that can provide a reconciliation process, and failing that, the matter can be taken to court, as has occurred in the ACT.

“Where a right cannot be immediately fully realised, that should be clearly stated in the legislation, as recently seen in the Australian Capital Territory where, after 20 years of being in force, its Human Rights Act was amended in September to include the right to housing,” Leong said during her 23 October 2025 second reading speech on her rights legislation.

The ACT became the first jurisdiction in the country to protect the right to housing when it was added to the territory’s HRA in September 2025. And that protection has already succeeded in saving the homes of three ACT public housing tenants and has set a precedent for other tenants with similar issues in the capital territory going forward.

“Following the passage of a Greens private member’s bill, that Act now includes a section recognising that everyone has a right to housing,” Leong further advised parliament. And she added that it “sets forth the following aspects of that right as immediately realisable”: that everyone is entitled to the right, that no one may be unlawfully or arbitrarily evicted or have an essential utility withdrawn.