SUBMISSION SUMMARY
The Alternative First Responders put forward a submission into the Committee on Community Services inquiry into the Human Rights Bill 2025. In this submission, we focus on the benefits of a human rights bill and how the Bill, together with other legislation, urgently actualises human rights protections in the context of policing and harm.
The higher presence of police is not only failing to fulfil the intention of safety but is also driving over-policing and a growing number of human rights concerns, all of which are exacerbated by the continued reliance on a police-led model. In the submission we also outline public pledges from concerned community members for a first response rooted in human rights, dignity and care.
ALTERNATIVE FIRST RESPONDERS AND SAFER ENTRY POINTS FOR CARE
The case for alternative first responders is a human-rights based issue. Community safety and ensuring people receive a rights-based approach will only be strengthened with a NSW Human Rights Bill. Having a Human Rights Bill gets policy and law closer to supporting greater community safety.
The current ”first responder” model sees and creates further injustices for vulnerable members of the community. I understand that an alternate first responder model could see a person/group/community met with appropriate care that is holistic, as opposed to an ‘incident’ based response – AFR public pledge.
Rights-based frameworks are essential for making meaningful investments in upholding human rights, while addressing ongoing systemic shortcomings that continue to grow, without a rights-based approach. We refer to the Alternative First Responder Human Rights Report in full, available here, which speaks to this in further detail.
