Until this law change, victims had to wait two years, living apart from their abuser, before they could get a dissolution of their marriage.
Hansard records the background to the law change:
Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): I move, That the Family Proceedings (Dissolution of Marriage or Civil Union for Family Violence) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to start with the women who made the case for this law change, the women who gave us the way forward to ensure that we would move from a divorce law which insisted that they wait in abusive relationships for two years before they could obtain a divorce. This bill enables people to move on immediately, and it came about because of three women.
The first is Charlotte Abrial, who brought a petition to this House in 2020, and brought the petition asking that in cases of relationships where there had been domestic violence, instead of waiting for two years for a divorce to become final, in fact that could happen within six months. In Charlotte’s words from the petition, speaking from her own experience, she said that the two-year stand-down period makes leaving an abusive spouse even more difficult because victims feel an obligation to go back and try to work things out. She said that, in many cases, each time the victim returns is worse, as the abuser’s control increases. She also commented that some women are not able to leave again because they may not survive the abuse. Thank you, Charlotte, for bringing the petition to the House and for making the House take notice of this matter.
The second woman I want to refer to is Ashley Jones. Ashley put together a petition and worked on it but, eventually, was unable to get it into the House, because she simply didn’t have the capacity to at the time. But she persisted with her work, and when this particular bill was finally in front of the House, she came and submitted to the committee and told us her story. And she put in a written submission. So from Ashley’s submission: “Any woman (or man) that has reached the painstaking decision to leave their marriage, has already reached the realisation that there is no reconciliation possible, especially not in cases where abuse is prevalent. But the reality is, for abuse victims the current divorce process is not as simple as a 2 year stand down. For me, someone with a protection order in place, no contact or knowledge of the other parties whereabouts, it took a painstaking further 10 months to be granted my dissolution. That was a further 2 years 10 months of mental and emotional anguish on top of everything else that didn’t need to happen.” Ashley, thank you for your work in bringing this legislation to the House. And, here, I’d also like to thank the Hon Chris Bishop for the work that he did to support Ashley as she was putting together her work in this area.
The third woman I would like to thank is a woman whose name has not been said in this House, because initially we kept her name very, very quiet. She did not want her name to be out there, because of some of the danger attached to it. When Angie Warren-Clark MP first brought this bill to the House, in her speech in the first reading, she referenced, obviously, Charlotte Abrial and Ashley Jones, but she also referenced someone who’d come to talk to her and told the story. I’ve been in contact with this woman today, and she sent me some words of her story too, and she gave me permission to use her given name. So, Adele, today we name you in the House, and we recognise your courage.
In Adele’s words: “It took two years, one month, and one day to get a divorce when I needed it desperately to get it before my then husband got out of prison. It was hard, it was terrifying, and so stressful to get it done in time as the parole board had phoned me three times, saying they were releasing him early and that he had rights. I had to plead firmly that they support my rights to feel safe and to not release him early so that I could be safe. It was a hard battle, a struggle mentally, emotionally. The fear was huge. I knew I needed the divorce as a boundary line by law for him not to seek to claim me as his property. I pushed so hard I even had to plead with the prison to deliver the divorce papers into his hands before he was released. I got my divorce with one day to spare only because I pushed and growled and defended the rights of victims of domestic violence.” Adele, thank you for those words.
These women all made the case that where there is family violence, a person should be able to obtain a divorce without having to wait for two years of separation from their former partner. And the reason is that that two years holds the tie. It binds the victim to their abuser. That should not be the case. We simply need to change the law, and, today, I know that we’re going to do it so that, in cases where people have separated and where there is domestic violence, instead of waiting for too long and instead of waiting for two long years in which the victim remains tied to their abuser, a divorce can be obtained immediately. Thank you to each of those three courageous women.
Two members of Parliament have had a very strong hand in bringing this legislation to the House. I’ve already mentioned the first, the Hon Chris Bishop, who supported Ashley Jones as her electorate MP when she was first working on this issue, and when the bill came into the House, he enabled it to go through with his support. So thank you to the Hon Chris Bishop. But I especially wish to recognise our former colleague Angie Warren-Clark. Angie put together a bill on this particular issue, and it was drawn from the ballot, and it had its first reading on the very last members’ day before the former election. There was a lot of support for it across the House then. After the election, Angie asked me if I would take it through the remaining stages. Angie, my darling, it has been an absolute honour to shepherd this bill through the House for you. You know, it’s a bit hard to make a mark as a Government backbencher; Angie’s done it.
It’s really interesting to reflect on where our divorce law has come from. In 1980, we had a radical divorce law reform. So instead of having tawdry cases of deception or of adultery or whatever trailed through the courts, we opted for what is now known as no-fault divorce. If couples wanted to separate, it was taken to be the case, and they could obtain a divorce. The only evidence that was required was two years of separation. So it was a very radical law reform in its day, but now we need something different. I think part of what this legislation, going through today, tells us is that, actually, we need to have an overall look at our divorce law. In the meantime, this change helps victims of domestic violence. And, obviously, for the three women who fought for it, the change hasn’t come in time for them. They’ve got the change now for other women, women like Kate who phoned into Newstalk ZB today—I want to thank Kerre Woodham for forwarding the clip to me—who talked about the feeling of relief and freedom that would be available to her with this law change.
Thank you to everyone across the House who’s worked on this bill, especially the members of the Justice Committee. Thank you to all those who have supported it. I’m going to end with the—I did say the Justice Committee? Good, OK. I got there. I’m going to end with Adele’s words again and what this legislation means to her: “Now, all my pain and grief of the vicious domestic violence I went through has been transformed into legislation today, a law that will support many victims for days, years to come. What a legacy we gift them all today. So many lives will be saved.” Charlotte, Ashley, Adele, thank you.
Hon CHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Can I start by acknowledging the excellent speech from Hon Deborah Russell in support of this bill, and also start by saying thank you to her for her work shepherding it through its final stages. That was a very heartfelt and meaningful speech and I’m sure people will really appreciate it. Can I also start by acknowledging Ashley, my friend who’s in the gallery, who, as Ms Russell has noted, has played a really important part in the genesis of this legislation.
Today is a very satisfying day, because it’s really Parliament at its best and it’s Parliament coming together—I believe it’s going to pass unanimously, which is a wonderful thing—Parliament coming together to fix a problem. We get a lot of grief from this place, probably sometimes fairly, about being fixated on things that don’t actually matter that much. And maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. But this matters, this legislation matters and this issue matters and today we’re doing something about it, and that’s a good thing. It’s precisely what members’ bills should be about. It’s a very satisfying day.
Can I start by just acknowledging the three women that Hon Deborah Russell noted, Ashley Jones, Charlotte Abrial, and Adele—who’s now read into the Hansard—for their courage and bravery and determination to try and make a difference for victims of family violence in the future seeking to get out of that relationship, but also the marriage or the relationship.
Can I acknowledge Angie Warren-Clark, who did the heavy lifting to introduce this bill into Parliament in the first place. I hadn’t actually realised until Deborah Russell mentioned it that it was the final member’s day before the 2023 election. So I didn’t actually realise that. So I’m sure that Angie is watching, and she should be proud of her work in introducing it to Parliament.
I think members might know that it was sort of an interesting process of events where Ashley came and saw me when I was the list MP based in Hutt South in 2021. I was actually looking up the news stories at the time—it was over three years ago, it was June 2021. She said, “I’ve had this idea, I’m going to do a petition.” I didn’t know that was the law; you know, I mean, MPs can’t be expected to know everything about everything, there’s too much law already. And I couldn’t believe that you had to wait two years if you’re a victim of family violence. I just couldn’t believe it. I said that can’t be the case—it is the case. After today, it won’t be. And she said, “I want to do a petition.” And I said, “I’m very happy to support that, it’s a great idea.” We had over 5,000 people sign it, on the online petition. That was three years ago, and I’ve been asked a bit by the media over the last couple of days, you know, “Why is it taking so long?” And, you know, sometimes the wheels of justice move slowly, and it’s been a bit frustrating.
Anyway, so as she presented the petition, unbeknownst to me Angie Warren-Clark was working on the issue as well, and I didn’t know that. And then the bill got put into the ballot and then it got pulled. National was proud to support it back in 2023, and now, of course, it’s going to pass into law.
Can I thank the Justice Committee for their work on this bill. It’s a really good committee, very competent members of Parliament on the committee. I know they’re a very busy committee with the inquiry into the election and quite a bit of other law and order legislation making its way through—
James Meager: Twenty-one bills.
Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Twenty-one bills, says the chair. Thank you, Mr Chair, and thank you for your work and your support. So thank you to the Justice Committee, thank you to Angie Warren-Clark. I want to thank Deborah Russell for picking it up, she’s been a very diligent, conscientious member in charge of the bill, so thank you.
So it is a very satisfying day, and it’s really, if you think about it and if you just step back a bit, what it’s actually about is fundamentally making a difference to reduce the harm caused by family violence and make it easier for, primarily, women who are the victims of family violence to move on. Closure. It’s about closure and making it easier for people to not remain trapped in a relationship that has broken down in the worst way possible—for the worst reasons, in the worst way possible—making it easier for women to move on, gain closure, finality, and take the next step in their journey and their life. I think that’s what it was about for Ashley, and I think it’s what it’s about for many women who have been through the enormous trauma of abuse or family violence, where the law says currently you have to remain tethered to your abuser for two more years until you can leave and formally make into law what is the practice; make the legal reality what is in fact the reality. And that’s a really powerful thing—that’s a really powerful thing.
So today we are righting a wrong. Deborah Russell talks about future reform to divorce law, she canvassed some of the history—that’s for another day. Reasonable people can disagree about some aspects of it. But what I don’t think people will disagree on is this change, and the fact that it’s passing the Parliament unanimously, I think, speaks to that. It’s interesting, whenever you raise it with people, people are quite staggered to discover it’s not the law. They expected that Parliament would have fixed this before now. And, you know, it turns out we haven’t, but now we have an opportunity to do it.
So I don’t want to take up much more of the House’s time. I know Ashley would tell me, “We just need to get on and pass it, it’s taken long enough already.” And in that, I agree with her. So I just want to acknowledge Ashley and thank you for your support. It’s been wonderful to have you here over the last two or three years that this bill has been making its way through the process. I want to acknowledge Deborah Russell: thank you for your bipartisan nature that we’ve approached this issue. It’s been really heartening, actually. And it’s really, I think, proof positive that when Parliament turns its mind to something and wants to do the right thing, despite all the noise out there, actually we can. So it’s a really great thing.
So thank you, Deborah. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Charlotte. Thank you to Angie Warren-Clark as well. Today’s a good day. It’s a satisfying day. We’re putting right what is a wrong, and I look forward to its passage through Parliament and then coming into force in due course. Thank you. . .
Several other speeches echoed the sentiments expressed here and in a rare display of unanimity, the Bill was passed into law without dissent.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
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