Australian bill to outlaw parents coercing marriage

The bill, released by the Government on Wednesday for public discussion, would outlaw coercing, threatening or deceiving a person into a marriage against their will and would extend to marriages involving Australians in other countries.

It follows a case in September in which a 16-year-old girl went to court to prevent her parents sending her to Lebanon for an arranged marriage.

"Every person has a right to choose whether to marry and who to marry," said the Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis. 

The government said the growing number of people smuggled into Australia, particularly for work in the sex industry.



In the case in September, said the Federal Republic of the trial court that the parents of 16 years could not remove from Australia to marry a young man she had met once. The judge, Joe Harman, ordered the parents not to attack, threaten or intimidate the girl and warned that the type of complaints was becoming more common.

The draft bill will be open for comment until January and is due to be passed next year.

The bill explicitly prohibits coerce, threaten or deceive anyone - children or adults - in a marriage do not want.

So far, prosecutions have been mounted only against people to force minors to marry.

The condemned man - the other side of marriage, or the victim's parents - can face up to seven years in prison for criminal cases, and four years in prison in other cases.

The laws apply equally to marriages that occur in Australia and the Australian participation in another country.