People in New South Wales live with some of the least protection of their human rights in any Western democracy. We have no federal Human Rights Act and, unlike our neighbours in the ACT, Queensland and Victoria, our state is yet to introduce its own. The rights that all of us are owed under international human rights law need to be properly protected in Australian law -- at the federal level and in every state and territory.

The NSW Parliament now has the opportunity to begin a community consultation about a Human Rights Act for NSW. Evidence from other jurisdictions shows this would be a meaningful change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In Victoria, the Charter of Human Rights (2006) has been used to prevent children being held in adult maximum-security prisons and to improve healthcare for First Nations peoples in custody.

In Queensland, the Human Rights Act (2019) has improved recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in schools and supported a First Nations family to secure disability-accessible housing.

In the ACT, the Human Rights Act (2004) has guided decisions around housing, healthcare, and prison conditions for over 20 years -- including a Human Rights Commission intervention to defend the cultural rights of a First Nations child in prison.

A Human Rights Act for NSW is not radical. It would simply make it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way that is incompatible with a person's human rights. Decision makers would have to ensure the participation of First Nations people in decisions likely to affect them. As it stands, the NSW Government can legally make decisions that affect First Nations people without their participation or consent. That has to change if we really want to close the gaps in opportunity, rights and living conditions.

A Human Rights Act would mean that decisions about housing, child protection, prisons, or healthcare would have to be tested against whether they uphold First Nations peoples' rights to culture, equality before the law, and family life. It could also acknowledge the historical and ongoing dispossession of the First Peoples of NSW and the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to self-determination — offering a tangible way to incorporate rights enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Dedicated protections could legally articulate that our people have the right to maintain our identity, culture, language, kinship, and relationship with land, waters and resources under our traditional laws and customs. This recognition is not just symbolic.

Right now, too many First Nations peoples in NSW are still fighting for basic rights case by case, policy by policy. The legal protections available are piecemeal and only responsive after rights have been violated. A Human Rights Act would alter the balance -- making the NSW Government morally and legally responsible for protecting our rights from the very beginning of the policy cycle. When administrative decisions breach human rights, people would gain accessible pathways to challenge them through a new NSW Human Rights Commission or a court or tribunal.

The critical next step is for the NSW Government to deliver on its Policy Platform promise to support comprehensive community consultation into further legislation to better protect the human rights of NSW residents. The Human Rights Bill 2025 (NSW), introduced by the member for Newtown Jenny Leong in October last year, offers all members of the NSW Legislative Assembly the opportunity to hold the Minns Government to this commitment by referring the Bill to a parliamentary inquiry.

Such an inquiry would be in keeping with other jurisdictions. The South Australian and Federal Parliaments have both recently conducted similar inquiries and both recommended the introduction of Human Rights Acts. An inquiry into a Human Rights Act for NSW would give everyone in our state the chance to contribute to how human rights protections should look at the local level, through their own stories and lived experiences.

First Nations organisations and communities could use an inquiry to share how our human rights - as protected in international law - should look at a local level. It is critical that vulnerable and marginalised communities speak to the design of human rights law. This public dialogue about human rights in NSW is long overdue.

There is significant support for this across the NSW community. More than 100 peak legal and community organisations, faith bodies and unions support the Human Rights Act for NSW Alliance -- united by a belief that legally protecting human rights is a powerful tool for placing dignity and respect at the heart of government decision-making.

For the Act to be effective in addressing the long history and continuing experience of injustice by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it must be accompanied by transformative systemic and structural reforms in line with the Uluru Statement from the Heart -- Voice, Treaty and Truth-telling -- underpinned by the unique individual and collective rights of our peoples as enshrined in UNDRIP.

Blake Alan Cansdale is a proud Anaiwan man with a strong physical and spiritual connection to Darkinjung Country on the Central Coast of NSW. He is National Director of the First Nations-led ally organisation ANTAR.