The disturbing number of Indian and South Asian women experiencing domestic violence and even being killed by their partners as a result of dowry-related abuse is an "alarming" problem that requires an urgent national response, the first hearing of the Senate inquiry into dowry abuse in Australia heard on Friday.

Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, deputy chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, told the hearing in Melbourne the concept of dowry had previously been "completely foreign" to him and that, when the inquiry was first proposed, he thought it was "ridiculous" because he believed it was not an issue in Australia.

But he was "glad" the inquiry had been instigated, he said, because it had exposed him to the seriousness of it.

Survivors of dowry-related abuse and a range of experts working to address it gave evidence as part of the focused probe into the "alarming growth" of dowry abuse in migrant communities, which an ABC News investigation revealed has resulted in a spate of horrific murders and suicides in recent years.

As part of the cultural practice, which has been illegal in India since 1961, a bride's family typically pays the groom and his family a dowry of cash, gold, gifts and property at the time of marriage.

However, it is common for grooms and their families to escalate demands for additional sums, which has resulted in violence, abandonment and even death when brides do not comply.

Indian and South Asian women who have migrated to Australia as part of arranged marriages and who have temporary migration status may also be threatened with deportation by their husbands, who have the ability to withdraw sponsorship of their wives' visas if they do not deliver on demands for more dowry.

In their joint submission to the inquiry, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand and inTouch Multicultural Centre against Family Violence said the practice of dowry abuse remained "largely unidentified within legal and policy frameworks" and that naming it in the definition of family violence — as the Victorian Government had recently done — would improve victims' access to support services.

"There needs to be an explicit reference to dowry abuse in the definition of domestic and family violence nationwide to increase protections for individuals at risk," chief executive of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand Stella Avramopoulos told the committee.

The Attorney-General's department had argued in its submission that the existing family violence legal framework was broad enough to include dowry-related abuse, Ms Avramopoulous said. "However, it is our experience that victims of dowry-related abuse often miss out on the support they need as a result of this broad-strokes approach."

Melbourne-based international anti-dowry campaigner Manjula O'Connor told the committee it was also vital the Australian Government consider how women on temporary migrant visas could be better protected from — and receive support for — dowry-related abuse and threats of deportation given their ineligibility for Centrelink, Medicare and long-term housing.

"This [dowry abuse] is a trans-national crime — it's a new kind of crime that has [emerged] because of migration," said Dr O'Connor, who in her clinical practice sees up to four new women from the Indian sub-continent experiencing family violence every week, nearly half of whom she says are also victims of dowry abuse.

"We ask the Senate committee today to look at laws that will support the victims of this crime and not harbour the perpetrators just because they have Australian citizenship."

Dr O'Connor said she had been disappointed by what she called a "backlash" to the campaign to end dowry abuse in Indian communities, particularly from many men who have claimed in submissions to the inquiry that it is not a major problem in Australia.

Others have argued that anti-dowry laws in India — in particular section 498A of the Penal Code, which in 1983 established specific forms of dowry-related cruelty to a wife — are misused by women to harass and extort their husbands, behaviour they say is resulting in the social ostracism and suicide of men.

"The law has been used as a weapon to intimidate husbands to comply with the demands of paying exorbitant money as "settlement" or impose financial and family decisions using threats of false complaint," stated one anonymous submission, which also claimed dowry "is not a common cultural practice in India".

Anti-dowry laws were "unnecessary and unconstitutional in Australia", the submission concluded, because existing domestic violence laws were adequate and applicable "to the Indian diaspora living in Australia".

But Dr O'Connor said such claims were a distraction, and an attempt to "shut up advocates" and survivors speaking out about the issue.

Labor MP Julian Hill, who announced the inquiry into dowry abuse in June, said most Australians would be "horrified" if they knew the extent of the problem, which he described as a "pernicious cultural practice dating back centuries" that was now a cause of "great worry in our community".

"When I first spoke publicly [about dowry abuse] in Parliament," Mr Hill said, "I was stunned that within two days I had people ringing my office … telling me this was not a problem, it was all made up."

But Mr Hill said that was "just nonsense" and was contradicted by the "evidence".

"It's been recognised by the royal commission into family violence, it's been recognised by Victorian coroners' investigations [as part of] a pattern of murders and abuse.

"Clearly we don't want law that criminalises or stigmatises men who are marrying for love and good reasons, but there is a problem [with dowry abuse], and we need to be honest enough to look at what legal responses are needed, but also community education."

Dr O'Connor agreed, adding it was "extremely important" that seven survivors of horrific dowry abuse in Australia — all women — were able to give evidence to the committee in a private hearing.

"They were … distressed, but also relieved that … the Government is listening, and will do something about it," Dr O'Connor said.

"These women are absolutely caught between a rock and a hard place, and we really need to support them, and today … it was really good for them to be heard."

A final report to the Senate is due on December 6.