Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not here to grieve today; I am here to crow. I am here to absolutely crow about a piece of legislation the government was forced to introduce last week. Sadly, I could not be here last week because of a terrible cold—and it still has not gone away, so bear with me.

Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ah, are you better?

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I am not. Labor first announced its policy for a national Do Not Call Register to protect Australians from invasive telemarketing calls in 2004. The then Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts dismissed our policy, saying it would not work. How times have changed! But it has been an uphill battle to get the Howard government to do something about the problem of unwanted telemarketing calls. I have long been campaigning for a national Do Not Call Register, so it gives me immense pleasure to support the Do Not Call Register Bill 2006, although it is long overdue.

Over six months ago I tried to legislate for a Do Not Call List because my constituents, along with millions of other Australians across the country, were fed up with being hassled by telemarketers. They were crying out for help—and it is no wonder. Last year Australian telemarketers made a total of 1,065 billion calls, so on average Australians received 53 telemarketing calls each week. This figure does not include the millions of calls from overseas call centres, usually on behalf of Australian companies. A rough calculation reveals that Australians are spending around half an hour each week fielding these calls. Australians are losing an entire day each year to telemarketers, so in effect we now have only 364 days in a year. That is why there was very much a sense of astonishment in the community that the federal government was doing nothing to protect their privacy. While state governments have been very proactive on this front, only legislation at the national level could have a meaningful impact. People kept on asking me: ‘If the government can legislate against spam, why does it refuse to legislate against telemarketers?’

When burglars invade your home you call the police. When termites invade your home you call the pest exterminators. But when telemarketers invade your home there is no-one to call and nothing you can do. This is why, in response to the anger and frustration of Australians, I introduced a private member’s bill in federal parliament in October last year to establish a Do Not Call List. Under my proposal, a register would have been established under the auspices of a federal department to allow people to opt out of receiving unwanted telemarketing calls. It banned telemarketers from calling people on public holidays and Sundays, and on any other day between midnight and 9 am or between 8 pm and midnight. It set out a penalty system that would ensure that companies which breached the list would receive hefty fines as both a deterrent and punishment. The legislation also protected Australians from receiving unwanted telemarketing calls from overseas. A similar list is working successfully in the US, where more than 100 million households have registered.

I wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to give bipartisan support to my bill to ensure that Australians were given some peace and quiet in their own homes. But instead the government chose to play politics and refused to allow a vote on this bill—and they are constantly saying that we play oppositional politics! So, as I remarked to my colleagues recently, I got a strange sense of deja vu last week when the member for Gippsland rose to speak on the Do Not Call Register Bill 2006. It all sounded very familiar.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and it is a great victory for both Labor and, more importantly, the community that has been pressuring the Howard government to actually adopt a national do not call register. Had the government allowed a vote on my private member’s bill six months ago, we would have a register up and running today. The day before my private member’s bill was set to be debated, the minister tried desperately to get in on the act, announcing a discussion paper on the need for a Do Not Call List. There was not much to discuss—it was just more waylaying from the government. The community overwhelmingly supported the establishment of the register and did not need a discussion paper to tell them that.

Over the last few months, I have been inundated with calls, emails and letters from people all over Australia—thousands, in fact—in support of my campaign to stop unwanted telemarketing calls. Most people I have spoken to about this issue are astounded that we live in an age where we no longer have privacy in our own homes. As I have said on many occasions, your home is no longer your castle; it is a telemarketing paradise. This is an issue that affects all sectors of our community. Australians love to shop, but they like to choose when and where they shop. For most of the community, telemarketing is just a nuisance.

In this busy day and age families get such little time together, so the few hours each day we do get are precious; they should not be spoiled by direct marketers. I do not think there is a single family out there who has not experienced the witching hour. My family are in the gallery today and they know this situation. It is incredibly frustrating when you are trying to feed your kids, get them in the bath and off to bed when the phone is ringing and someone is trying to sell you something that you do not want and that is too good to be true. Before the member for Gippsland accuses me of plagiarism, I point out to him that I have used the phrase ‘the witching hour’ on numerous occasions and so have the community out there.

I have had emails from new mothers who are extremely distressed by the fact that, whenever they sit down to feed the baby or put them in the cot, a telemarketer calls. Unwanted calls are not just annoying; for many people they can be extremely intimidating. Many elderly and frail people become quite frightened and confused. A gentleman from Queensland emailed me about his experience. He wrote:

My wife and I are retirees, and recently my wife was rather sick, and on several occasions we were interrupted by many of these calls while she was resting up ... I am most very angry that nothing has been done to stop these people before now, and consideration isn’t given to people who may be in bed on shift work, elderly people that may be sick or having trouble in getting to the phone and, in a nutshell, I feel it should be stopped and heavy penalties imposed for those that continue to do it. Even though we are not in your area, we give you our full support and wish you every success and hope you can get something done in the very near future.

I have no doubt that he and the other thousands of people who have been in contact with me will welcome Labor’s success in pressuring the government to act on this issue. So too will a Melbourne woman who sent me a particularly poignant email in relation to her elderly mother’s plight. She wrote:

A lot of people who are at home during the day (when a lot of cold calling occurs) are quite vulnerable and therefore susceptible to the sometimes aggressive tactics of telephone marketing. I use an example of my mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease and is still able to live in her home—just. When someone calls to ask her for information or tell her she ‘needs’ to buy this product, she doesn’t have the mental capacity to deal with the call in a rational way and can become upset and confused. She has been convinced to accept deals which aren’t in her best interest. I am her sole carer and caring for someone with a dementia related disease is difficult enough without outside factors making it harder.

There are thousands of other families out there who are gravely concerned that their elderly relatives are being taken advantage of by the hard-sell tactics of direct marketers.

People are resorting to adopting silent numbers, but this comes at an extra cost. It is my belief that privacy should be a right, not a privilege that you pay for. Others choose to block incoming overseas phone calls, but what if you have relatives overseas who need to be in touch? Remarkably, I have had emails from people who are now screening their calls on their answering machine. There are other extreme lengths to which people will go to avoid these pesky calls. One woman emailed me and said:

Although I am not in your constituency, I support with gusto your move to introduce this bill. Almost nightly we receive at least one call from some such telemarketer. It has reached the stage where we have told friends and family not to call us between 5.30 pm and 9 pm (telemarketer peak call times). We do not answer the phone at that time.

There are people too afraid to answer their own phones in their homes. This is a joke. A national Do Not Call Register is very welcome, but also long overdue and should be introduced now; we should not be waiting another six months to see it introduced.

Previously, the Howard government has said it would not establish a Do Not Call Register because it would result in job losses. The previous communications minister said it would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, but the evidence from the US shows that this is nothing more than a furphy. An article in the Advertising Age said:

... early indications are that the industry is evolving, rather than facing extinction: many telemarketers appear to have survived by broadening their businesses.

According to Manpower Inc:

The ‘do not call’ registry didn’t decrease the demand for personnel; it just shifted the work employees had to do.

In Tasmania, sometimes referred to as the call centre capital of Australia, there has been overwhelming support for the Do Not Call Register. This is because most of the firms handle inbound calls, but the register will actually help outbound telemarketers to better target consumers. They will not have to waste time contacting people who are just not interested.

It will benefit the hardworking employees in Australian call centres who are at the receiving end of sometimes rude and abusive behaviour. I have gone to lengths to make sure that people are always polite to people who work at these telemarketing centres. They are doing a fairly tough job for, on the whole, low wages. I do not support in any way, shape, size or form abusing them, but I can understand why some people do elect to take their frustration out on the person on the other end of the phone. I do not encourage it. These people are merely doing a job, but the reality is that some people are so fed up that they are taking their tempers out on these people.

I have to admit that recently, after the third phone call I had from a hotel I stayed in six years ago, I answered with the response, ‘You do realise I am pushing for a do not call register to stop these phone calls.’ The person on the end of the phone said, ‘So do you want me to take your phone number off?’ I said, ‘Yes. I’ve said that now on about 12 occasions. It is a silent number and I really would like you to go away.’ I think we need to not take it out on them but establish a system whereby we as individuals say, ‘No, I respect my castle, I respect my time with my family and I want it returned to me. I want to elect who calls me at home and I want to take my phone number out of your hands.’

I want to congratulate the Australian Direct Marketing Association, which has created its own register over the years and led the charge to ensure that its industry has a regulated regime. But it does not stop the pesky calls from India and Singapore. Hopefully, this legislation will. (Time expired)