The Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, released the strategy for 2025-2028, Building Australia’s Ambition and Impact: Strengthening the response to modern slavery.
The plan has four interconnected priorities for the Commissioner:
- Transforming systems to centre survivors and people with lived experience
- Strengthening law and policy
- Driving business and government towards better due diligence
- Improving access to justice and remedy.
The plan is the result of consultation and contributions from more than 250 stakeholders. Importantly, contributions from people with lived experience of modern slavery has helped to develop a plan that is actionable and meaningful.
Read the plan here.
The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, visited Australia from 14 to 27 November 2024. His report released in July found a number of opportunities for Australia to prevent and combat contemporary forms of slavery.
The report states that:
The Special Rapporteur noted that the Australian Government has made significant progress over the years to prevent and combat contemporary forms of slavery, through the adoption of the Modern Slavery Act 2018, the appointment of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner, the creation of the Survivor Advisory Council and other important legislative and policy measures. The Special Rapporteur commends the Government for its ongoing efforts nationally and internationally, its constructive collaboration during the visit and its open acknowledgement of the remaining challenges. Australia can serve as an example for other countries to follow.
At the same time, despite many positive steps taken by the Government, the Special Rapporteur witnessed some important gaps and challenges that need to be addressed sufficiently. Those range from the need to strengthen criminal law provisions, human rights due diligence among Australian businesses and their supply chains, and culturally appropriate, trauma-informed protection and assistance to victims of contemporary forms of slavery, to widening the scope of protection to those particularly vulnerable to labour, sexual and criminal exploitation in the country
without discrimination, such as migrant workers, asylum-seekers, refugees, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and those engaged in sex work.
Further recommendations are available in the report. Read the report here.
The latest media release from the Australian Federal Police reports that exit trafficking in Australia has jumped more than 100% in a single year, as reports of human trafficking and modern slavery reach an all-time high.
In new figures covering the 2024-25 financial year, the AFP detailed 420 reports of human trafficking, an increase of 10% from 382 the previous year, equating to an average of one report per day.
Three were 118 reports of forced marriage, 84 reports of sexual servitude, 75 reports of exit trafficking and 42 reports of forced labour.
Read the AFP’s press release here.
We are delighted to congratulate Yumi Lee on being awarded the 2025 Cath Leary Social Justice Award in recognition of her exceptional contribution to social justice.
Yumi has worked on women’s rights and violence against women for over 30 years. She began with advocacy for women’s rights in armed conflict and nuclear disarmament. Prior to returning to Sydney and working for the Older Women’s Network, she was based in Hanoi with an organisation supporting street children and rescuing women trafficked to the sex trade in China. She has also supported organisations in Nepal working with marginalised women when she was living there.
As the CEO of Older Women’s Network NSW, she is now advocating and lobbying on issues impacting older women, including housing insecurity and homelessness as well as violence against older women, including in aged care. Yumi also initiated the Employment Pathways program which supports unemployed women over 50 to find work.
Yumi received the Advocacy and Reform Bright Sparks Award of 2021 from the NSW Women’s Legal Service for her work in advocating for the safety of older women.
Yumi is a member of the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission’s Advisory Board and the Federal Attorney General’s Lived-Experience Expert Advisory Group on Sexual Violence
Yumi is driven by a strong sense of social justice, and the belief that our society will be enriched when we have the full participation of those who are currently marginalised. The Mercy Foundation Board, together with Cath’s family, congratulate Yumi on her many achievements, her continued hard work over many years and her significant contribution to social justice in Australia.
Above L – R: Sr Jennifer Ryan RSM, Congregation Leader of the Sisters of Mercy North Sydney, Yumi Lee, recipient of the Cath Leary Award, Dr Jennifer Leary, Annabel Senior, Chair of the Mercy Foundation, Sue Mowbray, CEO Mercy Foundation.
Everybody’s Home released a snapshot of the state of housing in Australia – a state of crisis.
The findings are sobering. Many families and individuals are facing intolerable stress, struggling to pay their rent, mortgage repayments or unable to find housing.
- In 2021, the Census reported 122,494 people experiencing homelessness in Australia.
- The number of households needing social housing was reported as 640,000 and the average waiting time is 10+ years.
- 70% of renters are in financial stress
- 26% of mortgage holders are in financial stress
The identified policy solutions are:
- Boost social housing to 940,000 homes over the next two decades
- Aim for a target of 10% for social housing as a percentage of all housing stock
- States and Territory Governments should incentivise new housing developments to provide low cost and affordable housing, including mandatory inclusionary zoning
- Phase out existing tax breaks for investors in housing
- Introduce limits to rent increases, end no-grounds evictions, enforce minimum standards for rental homes, rental rules and regulations
- Raise the level of income support including Jobseeker and Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
Download the full report here.
Safe, stable, appropriate and affordable housing is the foundation for the health and well-being of communities and individuals. Without safe and secure homes, everything is affected, from children’s education to family stability and economic opportunity. How we respond to this crisis is one of the most critical challenges facing our nation.
In NSW, there are around 156,000 social housing dwellings. Social housing includes public housing, community housing and Aboriginal housing.
In February 2024, Homes NSW was established as a division of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) with responsibility for managing housing and homelessness services.
The Audit Office of NSW assessed whether social housing is effectively and efficiently prioritised to meet the needs of vulnerable households, and whether social housing tenants are effectively supported to establish and sustain their tenancies.
Conclusion
The audit concluded that :
- the process to apply for a social housing property is inefficient and inequitable. The application process requests substantial amounts of evidence to determine whether an applicant is a priority. Some applicants are supported by external agencies to collect this evidence while others cannot access support.
- The process to allocate available social housing properties is inefficient and inequitable. In June 2024, DCJ took an average of 33 days to fill a vacant property. Just under a third of offers of housing result from manually selecting an applicant, rather than using the priority ranked list of applicants. DCJ does not centrally monitor manual allocation decisions, which risks inequitable outcomes.
- Social housing tenants do not consistently receive effective support to help them establish a successful tenancy or sustain that tenancy when issues arise. DCJ does not have a clearly articulated strategy for supporting tenancies, nor does it monitor or report on the support it coordinates for tenants.
Recommendations
The report made five recommendations:
- Simplify the social housing application process.
- Review and improve the allocation and offer process.
- Regularly monitor and report on the use of manual allocations.
- Clearly articulate the role of Homes NSW as a social housing landlord.
- Align key data sets between DCJ and community housing providers.
Read the report in full here: Social housing | Audit Office of New South Wales
Download the Report Summary here
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) launched the report ‘State of the Housing System 2025’ in April. The report presents a sobering view of Australia’s housing system, with deteriorating housing affordability and low levels of housing supply. Across the country, the housing crisis is having detrimental effects on families and individuals, especially those living on low incomes who are making sacrifices and impossible choices to pay for housing.
Read the report here
In NSW, 2,192 people were counted sleeping rough in the 2025 annual statewide rough sleeping count. This represents an increase of 8% compared to 2024. Street counts took place in more than 415 towns and suburbs in 77 LGA’s across NSW.
Street Counts provide a point-in-time measure of the number of people sleeping rough in a particular area and provides the NSW Government with an indication of programs and housing needed in those areas.
The results of the Street Count in February 2025 show mixed results. Byron Shire reported a 16% drop in the number of people sleeping rough, after a spike in numbers last year. The City of Sydney Street Count recorded the highest number of people sleeping rough, with a 24% increase from 2024. The number of people sleeping rough in inner Sydney was 346, compared to 280 people counted 12 months ago, and the number of people sleeping in crisis and temporary accommodation was 380, a slight drop from 392 in 2024.
These results underscore the urgent need for more social housing and more support across NSW.
Read more about Street Counts here
Access the NSW Statewide Street Count here
Read the media release from the Minister for Housing and Homelessness NSW Government here.
Anglicare released their Rental Affordability Snapshot today, finding that housing affordability has continued to plummet to record lows.
Of the 51,238 rental listings surveyed:
- 352 rentals (0.7%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage
- 165 rentals (0.3%) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension
- 28 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
- 3 rentals (0%), all rooms in sharehouses, were affordable for a person on JobSeeker
- No rentals were affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.
The Mercy Foundation endorses Anglicare Australia’s call for Government to directly fund and provide housing itself, rather than leaving it to the private sector.
The chronic lack of affordable housing is creating bottlenecks in services and denying a safe and affordable home for families and individuals.
Housing is a human right. We know that living without a safe, stable and affordable home has severely detrimental effects that are long lasting. The current state of housing and homelessness in Australia is impacting heavily on marginalised groups, including older women, women and children escaping domestic violence and young people.
Download the report here.
Learn more about the Right to Housing.
