Sweeping changes are being proposed in Victoria to help protect women and children from violent partners, as the Assemblies of God (AOG) denomination recently passed a motion to allow divorce on the ground of physical abuse.
The changes include allowing authorities to remove the perpetrator from the home and extending the definition of family violence to include financial and emotional abuse.
State Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, said that family violence was the leading contributor of death for women under 45 and he hopes to see an increase in police reports dealing with it.
"It is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in women under 45," Mr Hulls told the Herald Sun. "I would hope to see an increase in reports to police as a result of these proposed reforms."
In May this year, the AOG denomination including Hillsong Church; passed the 'Divorce, Marriage & Remarriage policy, allowing for divorce on the ground of physical abuse. 850 of the delegates had voted for it.
In the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Religion Report radio program, Pastor Alun Davies who is the National Vice-President of the Assemblies of God in Australia (AOG) said that the issue of divorce came up in the AOG conference and it needed to be addressed using the word of God; but the church was not obligated to send people back to serious domestic violent situations.
"But we would say that in many of our churches now these are serious issues that we have to face, and we really have to have an answer, and we have to have an answer yes that's grounded in the word of God, but also we feel that we're obligated not to send people back to serious domestic violence situations," said Pastor Davies.
He continued, saying that the some commandments in the Bible justified divorce on the ground of domestic violence since it teaches the sanctity of life and the protection of it from physical danger.
"We also believe that in the case of domestic violence, we also have some Commandments in the Bible and those Commandments are commandments that encourage life-saving and life-keeping."
"And so perhaps some of these commandments which are extremely important, should also bear some weight in today's world when we talk about marriage. So if someone's life is threatened, they're in serious physical danger, then there are plenty of commandments we need to draw from and apply to that situation to protect individuals."
Despite this allowance to divorce, he stressed that it was a last resort given they were committed to upholding the marriage covenant.
"We value and are committed to upholding the marriage covenant, and we consider divorce a last resort," he said.
The decision followed a comprehensive two-year consultation process, which received input from hundreds of people from every state in Australia.