New Zealand expected to pass law exempting abuse victims from 2-year divorce wait period

Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A bill in New Zealand that will give victims of domestic abuse the ability to quickly end their marriage is expected to pass New Zealand's parliament with unanimous support.

The Family Proceedings (Dissolution for Family Violence) Amendment Bill, nicknamed " Ashley's law ," is set to face its fourth and final reading before its put to a vote.

"Ashley's law" will give survivors of domestic abuse the ability to quickly apply for a court order to dissolve an abusive marriage as soon as a final protection order is granted, exempting them from New Zealand's current legal system requirements that divorcing parties live apart for two years before applying.

The bill, with widespread political support, was introduced by former Labor MP Angie Warren-Clark. After Warren-Clark's retirement, the bill was later pushed through parliament by another Labor member of parliament, Deborah Russell.

New Zealand in 1980 went through what Russell described as "radical" divorce law reforms, she said Wednesday on the floor of parliament during the bill's third reading.

But In 2020, Wellington resident Ashley Jones petitioned a local member of the country's parliament for a change in the law after Jones left an abusive marriage. Survivors of abusive marriages, she had said, bear a "mental and emotional" toll with the two-year requirement to wait while being separated under the current law.

"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," according to the Labor MP. "If couples wanted to separate, it was taken to be the case, and they could obtain a divorce."

The only evidence that was required, Russell said, was the two year requirement of being separated.

"So it was a very radical law reform in its day," she told fellow lawmakers on Wednesday. "But now we need something different."

Meanwhile, New Zealand's Minister of Housing Chris Bishop said Wednesday that passing "Ashley's law" was "righting the wrong", adding how people were often "quite staggered" to learn the divorce aw required a two-year separation period.

Green Party MP Tamatha Paul said this new change in law would remove one of the many barriers for people leaving abusive marriage arrangements.