KEY POINTS:
The Government is under pressure from migrant women to outlaw forced marriage and dowry abuse.
Dowry abuse occurs when the husband's family continues to press the wife's family for more money or other gains after the marriage, and sometimes involves physical threats.
The sensitive issue was debated at Labour's weekend conference, where South Asian women in the party lobbied for a law change. A remit supporting their position was passed.
But Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter said he had no plans to change the law.
"I think there is a bit of talking to be done."
He described the remit as "aspirational".
It calls on the Government to take steps, including legislation where appropriate, to prevent dowry abuse, ban forced marriages, and stop the abuse of migrant women as a result of their non-resident immigration status.
Mr Carter said he had no plans to start work on legislation but he would be talking about it with ethnic communities.
"Living in New Zealand means that while we are a diverse society and we enjoy our diversity, there are certain common values," he said.
"One of them is about equality and it is about freedom and the freedom to choose and this is about the freedom to choose."
Mr Carter said he had been approached by many of the party's Indian and Middle Eastern members at the conference in Takapuna over the sensitive issue.
He had been told that nobody forced anyone to marry; it was a matter of parents wanting their child to marry someone decent.
"The debate touches on that very sensitive issue about how families change in this country and the importance of the father's opinion in a traditional South Asian or Middle Eastern family and how that fits into modern New Zealand."
He said that on the issue of marriage the debate was really about the status quo: "Is it consensual or not?"
The remit caused a great deal of debate in a subcommittee and was strongly supported by young South Asian women.
But several older Indian women expressed concern that the term "dowry abuse" was directed specifically at the Indian community.
They agreed to support it with the proviso that their concerns were discussed by the party's policy council.
But one of the younger women at the conference, Shila Nair, said she felt shamed that some women there had concerns. The whole notion of dowry treated women as a product to be bought and sold.
Dowry abuse was an offence in India, and "there is no reason it should happen in New Zealand."
Ms Nair is the national co-ordinator of the Shakti Community Council which included four women's refuges for South Asian, African and Middle Eastern women.
She said the organisation would be lobbying for a law change.
Ms Nair described a young woman who was brought to one of the Shakti refuges after being rescued from a suicide attempt.
She had been plucked from the Bay of Plenty after trying to drown herself when she was 16.
The young woman had come from India and her family had paid her husband's family $60,000 in cash and assets at the time of the marriage. She had had to get up at five every morning, cook for the seven other members of the family, go and work with them on a kiwifruit orchard all day then return home and cook again. She had been sexually violated as well.
Now she is the manager in a fast food chain and planning to study part-time.
* Shakti hotline - 0800 Shakti or 0800 742 584
