About
At the end of 2025, NSW Greens Human Rights spokesperson and Member for Newtown Jenny Leong MP introduced a Human Rights Bill into the NSW Parliament.
Now we need to collectively Act 4 Human Rights - to urge the NSW Labor Government to hold a public inquiry into the Human Rights Bill 2025 - that's what this campaign is all about.
We know that our power to pressure politicians to act in parliament is only as strong as the campaign in the community - so we have created this site as a way for you to take action, get informed and spread the word about why we want to strengthen human rights protections in NSW.
It is NSW Labor policy to support an inquiry into better human rights protections - and the Bill was drafted with support and advice from members of the Human Rights Act for NSW Alliance, which is made up of over 100 members across community, legal and human rights sectors including Amnesty International, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and the Human Rights Law Centre.
We’re calling on the NSW Labor Government to keep their election promise to consult on better laws to protect human rights in NSW by holding an inquiry into the Bill in 2026 so we can make it as strong as possible and get it passed.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Human Rights Act is a law that makes public bodies like Parliament, councils, and government agencies like Service NSW and Homes NSW (which provides social housing) consider the effect all decisions, laws, policies, and rules they make will have on human rights.
It’s a tool that gives ordinary people power to challenge decisions that limit or deny their human rights, and that allows courts to decide if a law or other public decision goes against human rights and to order a fix if so.
Right now, Parliament and other public bodies and services don’t have to consider human rights at all, even though the decisions they make affect everyone in the community.
There are also no laws protecting what many of us think of as basic human rights like the right to privacy, to equality before the law, or to moving freely around the community. This means that if a public body or service denies - or a law is made that limits - one of these rights, you can’t challenge or take any steps to fix this.
A Human Rights Act would solve both of these problems.
A NSW Human Rights Act would protect many things that many people think are already legally protected but which actually aren’t. That includes things like the freedom of opinion and of movement, the right to a fair hearing, and the prohibition of torture.
The Act we’re campaigning for would also protect political and cultural rights like the right to protest, the right to take part in public life, and the distinct cultural rights of First Nations peoples including the right to self-determination.
From ignoring massive inequality in access to essentials like housing and healthcare to increasing restrictions on protest rights and making laws that harm First Nations kids and crack down on people opposing the genocide in Gaza, it’s clear the major parties don’t care about human rights in NSW.
A Human Rights Act would force them to care about human rights and give ordinary people a powerful tool to push back on decisions that limit our human rights - decisions that we’re seeing more and more of right now.