Dowry abuse in Australia is written into family violence law. Here is what that means

Australia’s Family Law Act now uses the word dowry. Since 10 June 2025, its definition of family violence has listed coercing a family member “to give or seek money, assets or other items as dowry” as an example of economic or financial abuse. Victoria added dowry-related abuse to the examples in its intervention order law in 2018, and Western Australia followed in 2020. Dowry abuse in Australia, which a 2019 Senate committee report described as “not confined to any one ethnic, cultural or religious group”, is now named in state and federal law.

What Victoria changed, and why

The Royal Commission into Family Violence provided its report to the Victorian Government on 29 March 2016. Recommendation 156 called on the government to amend section 6 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 so that its statutory examples of family violence included forced marriage and dowry-related abuse, within 12 months.

The Victorian Parliament acted through the Justice Legislation Amendment (Family Violence Protection and Other Matters) Act 2018, which passed the Legislative Council on 7 August 2018 and received Royal Assent on 14 August 2018. The Victorian Government states that the new examples of dowry-related family violence and forced marriage “commenced in March 2019”.

Victoria Legal Aid‘s examples include “financial or economic abuse, such as forcing someone to pay a dowry or controlling their money without their consent” and “controlling behaviour, such as forcing a family member into marriage”. The Magistrates’ Court of Victoria lists “using dowry or family finance issues to control someone” among its examples of economic abuse.

What it means in practice

Victoria Legal Aid describes a family violence intervention order as “a court order that aims to protect a person from someone who has used family violence”. A person seeking protection, or the police, can apply to the Magistrates’ Court. The Court states that police must respond to all reports of family violence and “can act even if a person does not want them to”. Police can also issue a family violence safety notice for immediate protection, which Victoria Police says is valid until a magistrate decides whether to issue an intervention order.

Who counts as family matters: Anti-Slavery Australia told the Senate committee that dowry abuse “may be committed against a wife by not only the husband, but the husband’s family and the wife’s family”. Victoria Legal Aid explains that the law covers partners, parents and children, “relatives by birth, marriage or adoption”, people treated like family, and former family members. An order can require a respondent to stop the behaviour and to stay away from and not contact the protected person, and it can also protect children and property. Breaching an order or safety notice is a criminal offence, and Victoria Police states that “an affected family member cannot give permission to the respondent to disobey or breach the conditions”.

Dowry abuse in Australia: what the Senate inquiry found

The Senate referred dowry and dowry abuse to its Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee on 26 June 2018. The committee received 84 submissions and reported on 14 February 2019 with 12 recommendations. At that time it stated that Victoria “is therefore the only jurisdiction that specifically includes dowry abuse as an example of family violence”.

The committee acknowledged “a lack of understanding about the prevalence of dowry abuse in Australia”. It did not recommend a new offence, accepting that “a narrow approach of simply criminalising particular practices, such as dowry, may be counter-productive”, and noted that India’s criminal approach “does not appear to have been particularly effective” and “has been the subject of misuse”. Instead it recommended writing economic abuse, with dowry abuse as an example, into the Family Law Act 1975; working with the states and territories so intervention order laws “explicitly recognise dowry abuse as an example of family violence or economic abuse”; building an evidence base; and training frontline professionals, including police, doctors and judges. The Australian Government’s response was tabled in the Senate on 7 December 2023.

Western Australia followed, other states have not

Since 6 August 2020, section 5A of Western Australia’s Restraining Orders Act 1997 has listed among its examples of family violence “coercing, threatening, or causing physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse or financial abuse, in connection with demanding or receiving dowry, whether before or after any marriage”. Section 54 of the Family Violence Legislation Reform Act 2020 inserted the example.

The current family violence laws of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory do not use the word dowry. South Australia’s Act does list “forcing the person to marry another person” as an example of emotional or psychological harm.

The federal law changed in 2025

The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 10 December 2024, and the relevant Schedule 1 amendments commenced on 10 June 2025. Section 4AB(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 now lists “economic or financial abuse” among its examples of family violence, and a new subsection 4AB(2A) gives examples of that abuse. Two concern dowry: coercing a family member, including by threats, physical abuse or emotional or psychological abuse, “to give or seek money, assets or other items as dowry” or “to do or agree to things in connection with a practice of dowry”; and hiding or falsely denying things done or agreed to by the family member, “including hiding or falsely denying the receipt of money, assets or other items, in connection with a practice of dowry”.

Visas, in-laws and the gap that remains

Home Affairs lists dowry-related abuse as financial abuse, “including claiming dowry was not paid and coercive demands for further money or gifts”. Its family violence provisions cover partner and prospective marriage visas (subclasses 820, 309 and 300), the dependent child visa (subclass 445) and some secondary applicants. The department’s page states: “You and your family do not have to stay in a relationship where you fear for your or your family’s safety.”

Division 1.5 of the Migration Regulations 1994, which deals with family violence, does not use the word dowry. Regulation 1.21 defines relevant family violence as conduct, actual or threatened, that causes the alleged victim “to reasonably fear for, or to be reasonably apprehensive about, his or her own wellbeing or safety”. The Senate committee recommended protection for people who experience family violence from “their partner and/or their partner’s family members”. For partner visas, the department’s current page states that “the perpetrator must be the former sponsor of the visa application”.

India’s law, for context

India prohibits dowry under the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 (Act No. 28 of 1961). It defines dowry as “any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly” in connection with a marriage, whether before, at or after it. Giving, taking or abetting dowry carries imprisonment of not less than five years, unless a court records “adequate and special reasons” for a shorter term, and a fine of not less than ₹15,000 or the value of the dowry, whichever is more. Demanding dowry carries six months to two years, with a similar proviso, and a fine of up to ₹10,000.

The Senate committee took a different path, describing dowry abuse as an example of economic abuse, “itself a form of family violence”.

The takeaway

Since the Senate committee reported in 2019, Western Australia and the Commonwealth have joined Victoria in naming dowry in their definitions of family violence, while the Migration Regulations and the laws of the other states and territories do not use the word. The committee’s evidence included one submitter’s account that some police had dismissed women’s dowry complaints as a “property dispute”, and it recommended training for police and other frontline professionals. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000). 1800RESPECT, the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service, is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 1800 737 732, or by text on 0458 737 732. inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence can be reached on 1800 755 988, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. In Victoria, Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre runs a 24/7 line on 1800 015 188.