Do Not Call Register Not Enough
Do Not Call Register Not Enough
July 6th, 2006:The Australian Teleservices Association (ATA) has given support to the Do Not Call Register Legislation passed last week but warns it will not completely eradicate unsolicited telemarketing.
The Legislation, which was passed by the Federal Government last week, was welcomed by the ATA but it was quick to point out that the Register may be difficult to enforce and could result in negative flow on effects for the call centre industry. The Minister responsible Senator Helen Coonan has pledged AU$ 17 million to the project. The Register will be set up by the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) who will maintain a list of individuals who do not wish to be contacted for telemarketing.
The ATA has pointed to overseas call centres as being of particular concern. Research company callcentres.net estimates 15 percent of telemarketing calls originate off shore from foreign companies making it difficult to enforce the Register. With every adult Australian receiving an average of 20 off shore telemarketing calls per year, this represents 2.8 billion calls per year that despite being legally bound by the Register, will be almost impossible to enforce.
Mr Michael Meredith, Executive Director of the ATA says, “With Australians receiving such a large volume of unwanted calls from overseas telemarketers, I can only emphasise the importance of using the register to capture data that could potentially help develop future strategies to reduce the number of overseas centres calling Australia”.
The legislation will not include certain organisations whose calls qualify as having a legitimate public interest such as charities, registered political parties, religious organisations and government bodies. The Register, which is expected to be up and running by 2007, will remove any listed person’s details from the marketing lists held by ADMA members, however not all telemarketers are members of ADMA.