AUSTRALIAN politicians are following Scotland's lead as they work to change the country's domestic abuse laws.

The Scottish Parliament passed the Domestic Abuse Act in February last year, creating a specific offence of domestic abuse.

It covers physical abuse but also psychological and emotional treatment and coercive and controlling behaviour, where abusers isolate their victim from their friends and relatives or control their finances.

The Scottish legislation is considered the "gold standard" for protecting women and children from coercive control.

Scottish Women's Aid was one of the key players advocating for change and chief executive Dr Marsha Scott spoke to an Australian parliamentary inquiry this week about the issue.

"The status-quo was not acceptable in Scotland, and I would suggest it's not acceptable in Australia either," she said.

"I have seen so few domestic abuse cases in which there wasn't some element of coercion.

"It's important not to think of coercive control as this totally separate phenomenon that happens and then physical assault happens in a different relationship, they're all embedded together."

The bill was developed carefully over time and produced with women's organisations, in consultation with survivors of domestic violence.

"What women have told us is what they were seeing being prosecuted by the crime office and being pursued by police was the tiny tip of the iceberg," she said.

"In fact, often their experiences were trivialised by saying, 'Well you don't have a broken bone, we don't see any blood'."

In Australia domestic violence claims the life of one woman a week.

The parliamentary inquiry is currently looking at immediate and long-term measures to prevent violence against women and their children.

Dr Scott told the committee 1000 cases against alleged offenders have been taken to court in Scotland, with men overwhelmingly the perpetrators and women and children the victims.

"One of our biggest concerns is that there's lots of evidence over decades that when you implement new laws that change arrest policies, you get a spike in arrests of women who are actually victims," she said.

While Australia's Federal Parliament is investigating the issue, criminalising coercive control would require legislative action by state and territory governments.

Currently only Tasmania has laws that seek to respond to coercive and controlling behaviours.

Domestically, women's groups have been successful in convincing governments such laws are worth exploring and New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria are all at different stages of considering possible changes.

A small group of federal politicians have formed a cross-party  group to raise awareness about violence against women and push for policy changes.

Greens senator Larissa Waters, Labor MP Anne Aly and Liberal MP Fiona Martin believe the federal government does have a role to play.

"We certainly hope that coercive control can be legislated on to eliminate violence against women and their children," Martin said.

Senator Waters said the federal government should proactively encourage states to take a unified response.

"It's important for the federal government to make sure it's a consistent approach nationally," she said. "You shouldn't get a different level of protection based on which state or territory you live in."

Aly said: "This is the place where the conversation needs to start, because nothing changes without political will."