A man slapped his wife of four months, dragged her by the hair and threatened to kill her because he was under pressure from his Indian family to extract a $20,000 dowry payment from her, a Queensland court has heard.

Key points: Couple's marriage arranged in India and man's family demanded dowry payment, court heard

Couple's marriage arranged in India and man's family demanded dowry payment, court heard Prosecutor said offences grounded in India's patriarchal culture

Prosecutor said offences grounded in India's patriarchal culture Man's lawyer told court her client was familiar with Australian cultural values

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court to assault, assault occasioning bodily harm and breaching a domestic violence order.

Magistrate Maxine Baldwin told the man that he would have had to have been "living under a rock" not to know that Australia was "very serious about domestic violence".

She said she wanted to impose a sentence that would be a deterrent and show that Australia "has had a gutful" of domestic violence.

The court was told the couple were brought together in an arranged marriage in India after knowing each other less than a month.

"I just went up there [India] and got married and came back within 28 days," the man told the court.

But only four months into the arrangement there were problems.

The court heard the man, an Australian citizen, brought his new wife back to south-east Queensland, but that the couple were from different religions.

They were living with one of his relatives, and his family in India were calling to demand their $10,000 share of a $20,000 bridal dowry.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Phillip Stephens told the court that over a week this year, the man threw a cup of tea on the floor, slapped his wife, dragged her by the hair, hitting her head on the bed frame and threatened to kill her.

"The offending grounded in cultural undertones of a patriarchal system that is not tolerated in Australian society," Sergeant Stephens said.

"Incidents arose due to what he claims are monies owed to him or his family are part of a promised dowry payment."

He said the man deserved to be sentenced to at least nine months in jail.

"This is not in keeping with the values that we share in Australian society ... he must know that such behaviours will not be tolerated by courts, no matter what your race creed or clan."

'It's not a cultural issue'

The man's lawyer Anna Smith told the Maroochydore court her client had lived in Australia for a number of years, was familiar with Australian values and that his culture was not the reason for the assaults.

"Yes, there was an arranged marriage. It was not the reason, or any reason as to why he found himself assaulting the complainant," Ms Smith told the court.

She insisted her client had no prior criminal history and had good references from his employer.

"He had a new wife, pressure from families externally, he's extremely remorseful for the way that he dealt with it but it wasn't because he thought it was right, culturally, to do so," she said.

Magistrate Baldwin said she accepted arranged marriages and dowries were Indian traditions but that she was not in a position to judge those cultural traditions.

"The reality is this isn't over a dowry thing — the cultural aspect of that most Australians would find abhorrent," she said.

"If you say he's an Australian he's been living here, isn't it incumbent upon him to say, 'I'm in Australian, we live here, we don't collect dowries for women anymore'?"

She sentenced the man to six months in prison, suspended for two years, ordering him to also undertake a domestic violence prevention program.