30 June 2026
All Means All, together with Family Advocacy and Inclusive Educators Australia, has made a joint submission to the NSW Parliament’s Community Services Committee inquiry into the Human Rights Bill 2025, calling for stronger legislative protection of the right to inclusive education.
Our submission strongly supports the introduction of a comprehensive Human Rights Act in New South Wales, which would provide an important framework for ensuring that human rights are embedded in government decision-making, strengthening accountability and providing more effective protections and remedies when rights are breached.
While we welcome the current Human Rights Bill‘s recognition of the right to education, we argue that this right must expressly include the right to inclusive education, consistent with Australia’s obligations under Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). As the Disability Royal Commission and previous NSW parliamentary inquiries have demonstrated, students with disability continue to experience significant barriers to education, including gatekeeping, exclusionary discipline, inadequate adjustments and supports, and exclusion from general education settings.
Our submission makes three key recommendations:
- that NSW enact a comprehensive Human Rights Act;
- that clause 38 of the Bill be amended to expressly recognise the right to inclusive education, including the reasonable adjustments and supports necessary for students with disability to participate on an equal basis with others; and
- that the legislation provide accessible and effective mechanisms for addressing human rights breaches.
Recognising education as a human right is essential, but that recognition must translate into meaningful legal protections that ensure every student can learn, participate and belong.
Read our full joint submission to the NSW Parliament (PDF):