The Australian Do Not Call Register: a guide for businesses

The short answer

The Do Not Call Register is the list of Australian numbers that telemarketers may not call. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) keeps it under the Do Not Call Register Act 2006. It holds numbers used mainly for private or domestic purposes, fax-only numbers, government numbers and emergency numbers. A telemarketing call to a registered number is banned unless an exception applies. Mobiles are covered when they are used mainly for private purposes. A wash of the number against the register protects the caller for 30 days. Charities, political parties and some educational institutions can call registered numbers, but they still have to follow the national calling rules.

This guide is for businesses calling Australian numbers, including overseas teams. It is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. It quotes the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (the Act), the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 (the Standard) and the Telecommunications Act 1997, as published on the Federal Register of Legislation. Dollar amounts are Australian dollars. Both the Act and the Standard have a section 11 and a section 14, so each reference below names the instrument.

What the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 does

Section 13 of the Act tells ACMA to keep a register of Australian numbers, "to be known as the Do Not Call Register", in electronic form. ACMA can keep it itself or have a contracted service provider keep it on ACMA's behalf. Section 13(6) gives its main purpose, for the purposes of the Privacy Act 1988: to support the ban on unsolicited telemarketing calls in section 11, and the ban on unsolicited marketing faxes in section 12B.

The ban itself is in section 11(1) of the Act: "A person must not make, or cause to be made, a telemarketing call to an Australian number if: (a) the number is registered on the Do Not Call Register; and (b) the call is not a designated telemarketing call." Under section 4, "make" includes attempting to make the call, so an attempted call counts.

Section 5(1) of the Act defines a telemarketing call by its purpose. A voice call is a telemarketing call if "the purpose, or one of the purposes, of the call" is to offer, advertise or promote goods, services, land, a business or investment opportunity, or the person who supplies them. Calls to solicit donations count too. The test looks at the content of the call, how it is presented, and any numbers or web addresses it mentions. It does not matter whether the thing being offered exists (section 5(2)).

Two parts of the Act reach further than people expect.

• Recorded and synthetic voices. Section 4 defines a voice call to include "a call that involves a recorded or synthetic voice", whether or not the person answering presses buttons on the handset. Robocalls and AI voice callers are voice calls under the Act.
• Callers outside Australia. Section 9 says: "Unless the contrary intention appears, this Act extends to acts, omissions, matters and things outside Australia." A UK team calling Australian numbers is covered in the same way as a team in Sydney.

If your team also calls the UK or the US, the three national registers are compared side by side in TPS vs Do Not Call vs DNCR.

Which numbers can be registered

Section 14 of the Act sets out four kinds of eligible number. An Australian number can go on the register if:

• it is used or maintained primarily for private or domestic purposes;
• it is used or maintained exclusively for sending or receiving faxes;
• it is used or maintained exclusively by a government body; or
• it is an emergency service number.

The account holder applies, or a nominee the account holder has named in writing (sections 15 and 39). Under section 17(1), a registration "takes effect when it is entered on the Do Not Call Register" and "remains in force indefinitely" unless it is removed under the rules ACMA sets. A removed number can be registered again (section 17(3)).

On my reading, there is no settling-in period of the kind the UK gives new TPS registrations. A number is protected from the day it is entered. The caller's protection comes from the 30-day wash rule covered below.

Does the Do Not Call Register cover mobiles?

Yes, when the mobile is used mainly for private or domestic purposes. The Act tests how a number is used, not what type of number it is. Mobile numbers are Australian numbers like any other, so section 14 applies to them in the same way as to landlines.

The other side of that test is in section 4, which defines a "business number" as "an Australian number other than a number that is used, or maintained, exclusively or primarily for private or domestic purposes." A mobile used mainly for work is a business number. It does not meet section 14(a), so it cannot be registered on that ground.

The hard case is a sole trader or a small business owner whose one mobile is mainly personal. That number can be on the register even though it sits against a business in your CRM. Wash business mobiles as well as consumer ones. The calling process for this is set out step by step in how to cold call in Australia.

Who the Act binds, and how a wash protects you

The Act bans the call, and a wash is your protection. Nothing in it says in terms that a business must wash its list. Section 11(1) bans telemarketing calls to registered numbers, and section 11(3) gives a defence to a caller who checked the number first. Anyone who makes a telemarketing call to an Australian number, or causes one to be made, is bound by the ban.

The Act has no business-to-business exemption either. It simply does not let business numbers onto the register. If a number is on the register, for example a mainly private mobile, the ban applies whatever you are selling.

The wash defence in section 11(3) has two conditions. The number must have been on a list "submitted by the person" to the register. And the register's answer, given within the 30 days ending at the end of the day of the call, must not have shown it as registered. A list can be a single number. So a number you are still calling after 30 days needs a fresh wash.

The wash itself runs under section 19. A business submits a list of numbers to ACMA or its contracted service provider. Once any fee is paid, ACMA checks the list and, on request, says which numbers are registered, says which are not, or sends the list back with the registered numbers deleted. Those are the three answers section 11(3) relies on.

If you pay someone else to make the calls, section 11(9) treats you as having caused each call. Section 12 requires your calling contract to say the other party will comply with the Act. The detail is in the contractors section of the cold calling guide.

Do Not Call Register exceptions

The exceptions fall into three groups. Section 11 of the Act gives defences to any caller. Schedule 1 lists "designated telemarketing calls", which the ban does not cover at all. And some calls, such as genuine research calls, are not telemarketing calls under the Act in the first place.

For every defence in section 11, the caller "bears an evidential burden" (section 11(6)). That means pointing to evidence that the defence is a reasonable possibility. In practice, keep your wash results and your consent records.

Consent

The ban does not apply if the account holder or their nominee "consented to the making of the call" (section 11(2)). Schedule 2 of the Act says consent can be express, or reasonably inferred from the person's conduct and their business and other relationships. Express consent with no stated end date is taken to be withdrawn after 3 months (clause 3). Consent "may not be inferred from the mere fact that the number has been published" (clause 4), so a number on a website or in a directory is not consent.

Mistake and reasonable precautions

Section 11(4) of the Act says the ban does not apply if the person made the call "by mistake". Section 11(5) says it does not apply if the person "took reasonable precautions, and exercised due diligence, to avoid the contravention." Both depend on evidence, which is where a wash record and a written process count.

Government bodies and registered charities

Under Schedule 1, clause 2, a call is designated if it is authorised by a government body or a registered charity. Where the call is about goods or services, that body must be their supplier or prospective supplier. A "registered charity" is one registered as a charity under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 (section 4). "Government body" covers Commonwealth, State and Territory departments and agencies, and those of foreign governments.

Political parties, members and candidates

Schedule 1, clause 3, designates calls authorised by a registered political party, an independent member of a parliament or local governing body, or a candidate. The purpose, or one of the purposes, must be fund-raising for electoral or political purposes, with the same supplier condition for goods or services.

Educational institutions

This is not a general exemption for education. Schedule 1, clause 4, designates a call authorised by an educational institution only where the number is used mainly for private or domestic purposes and the account holder, or a member or former member of their household, "is, or has been, enrolled as a student in that institution". The supplier condition applies here too. Section 4 says an educational institution includes a pre-school, a school, a college and a university.

Research and opinion-poll calls

The purposes in section 5(1) of the Act do not include research. On my reading, a genuine opinion poll or questionnaire-based research call is not a telemarketing call under the Act, so the register ban does not reach it. The Standard does reach it. Its definition of a call includes calls whose purpose is "to conduct opinion polling" or "to carry out standard questionnaire-based research", taken from section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

A research call that also sells or promotes something is a telemarketing call under the Act, because the test is "the purpose, or one of the purposes". It needs a wash like any other sales call.

Exempt from the register is not exempt from the calling rules

The Standard has no carve-out for charities, political parties or educational institutions. It applies to everyone in the telemarketing industry (Standard section 5). Under section 109B of the Telecommunications Act 1997, that includes anyone using telemarketing calls to promote their own goods or services, to solicit donations, to run opinion polls or to carry out research. Section 128(1) of that Act says each of them "must comply with the standard". So a charity calling a registered number keeps to the same hours and identification rules as a sales team.

How to check a number on the Do Not Call Register

There are two different checks: a person can check whether their own number is registered, while a business checks a calling list by washing it.

Checking your own number

The register's website, donotcall.gov.au, has an online form for account holders. It asks for the email address used to register and a declaration that you are the account holder, and it sends the result by email. The site says the form "can only be used for registrations that were completed online". If you registered by phone, it asks you to call 1300 792 958.

Checking a calling list

A business checks numbers by washing them under section 19 of the Act. The register's industry pages say: "To wash contact lists against the register, you need to create an account and buy a subscription." There are four washing channels, and all of them "require an active subscription with sufficient credit".

Wash before the first call and again before 30 days are up for any number still being called. A wash older than 30 days on the day of the call gives no protection under section 11(3).

What a wash costs, and why every number counts

The Do Not Call Register (Access Fees) Determination 2017 sets the subscription fees. Type A gives 500 numbers a year free, and paid types run up to 100 million numbers. A business can hold only one Type A subscription at a time, and cannot hold another type alongside it (section 8(2) of the Determination). Each subscription ends 12 months after it starts (section 9(3) of the Determination). The full fee table is in the register comparison.

Every number you submit uses a wash. Section 7(2) of the Determination says a submitted number "is taken to be an Australian number even if it is not in fact an Australian number", and a number submitted more than once is counted each time. When we tested the register, an unallocated number in the 02 range used a wash like any real one. Clean and de-duplicate a list before you wash it.

The calling rules that apply to every call

The Standard applies to telemarketing and research calls to Australian numbers whether or not the number is on the register. The main rules, in brief:

• Hours. No telemarketing call on a weekday before 9am or after 8pm, on a Saturday before 9am or after 5pm, or on a Sunday (Standard section 8(1)). Research calls may run to 8.30pm on weekdays and from 9am to 5pm on Sundays (Standard section 8(2)). Neither may be made on New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or a weekday holiday in lieu (Standard section 8(3)). Times are local to the account holder's usual home address (Standard section 8(4)).
• Calls booked in advance. The hours rules do not apply where the account holder or nominee gave express consent in advance to a call on that day or at that time, and you call only then (Standard section 8(5)).
• Who is calling. At the start of the call, give your first name, your employer's company or business name, the name of whoever the call is being made for, and the purpose of the call (Standard section 9(2)). Give contact details if asked (Standard section 9(4)).
• Recorded and synthetic voices. A call made with a recorded or synthetic voice must give the person a way to ask for that contact information, such as pressing a button to reach an operator (Standard section 12).
• Ending the call. End it straight away if the person asks you to, or otherwise shows they do not want it to continue (Standard section 13(1)(b)).
• Caller ID. Calling line identification must be switched on, and the number shown must be likely to take return calls for at least 30 days (Standard section 14).

State and Territory laws can add rules of their own (Act section 42, Standard section 15). How to cold call in Australia turns these rules into a calling process. For agents selling property, see real estate cold calling in Australia.

Penalties for calling a registered number

Calling a registered number is a civil contravention, not a crime (Act section 29). ACMA applies to the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court, which sets the penalty (section 24). The court weighs the nature and extent of the breach, any loss caused, the circumstances and any similar past conduct.

The maximum penalties in section 25 are in penalty units. The current value of a penalty unit is $364, under the Crimes (Amount of a Penalty Unit) Instrument 2026. At that value, the maximums for a breach of section 11(1) are:

"Earlier order" means a court has already made a civil penalty order against that person under the same provision (section 25(2)).

ACMA can also act without going to court.

• Infringement notices. For a company, one alleged breach of section 11(1) costs 20 penalty units ($7,280). Between 2 and 49 breaches cost 20 units each, and 50 or more cost 1,000 units ($364,000). For an individual, one breach costs 4 units ($1,456). A notice covers one provision on one day, must be given within 12 months, and paying within 28 days keeps the matter out of court (Schedule 3).
• Formal warnings (section 40).
• Court orders for compensation to anyone who suffered loss (section 30), recovery of any financial benefit (section 31) and injunctions (section 34).

Proceedings can start up to 6 years after the contravention (section 27).

Breaking the Standard is a separate contravention under the Telecommunications Act 1997. Section 128 of that Act makes compliance with the Standard a civil penalty provision. Under section 570, the maximum is $250,000 for each contravention by a company and $50,000 for each contravention by anyone else. ACMA can also issue a formal warning (section 129).

Washing numbers with TPSClear

TPSClear washes Australian numbers inside HubSpot, through Zapier and through the API (POST /v1/dncr). HubSpot plans start at A$149 per 30 days, and prepaid washes start at A$4. Numbers that are not Australian, or fall in ranges that have not been allocated, are not sent to the register and are not charged.

TPSClear washes on its own ACMA subscription. A business with its own subscription can ask to have washes run through it instead. Prices and plan details are on TPSClear's Australian plans.

Summary

• The Do Not Call Register is ACMA's list of private, fax-only, government and emergency numbers, kept under the Do Not Call Register Act 2006.
• Section 11(1) of the Act bans telemarketing calls to registered numbers. It reaches callers outside Australia, and recorded and synthetic voices.
• Mobiles are covered when used mainly for private purposes. Business numbers cannot be registered under section 14(a).
• A wash protects you for the 30 days ending on the day of the call, for a list you submitted yourself.
• Consent, mistake and reasonable precautions are defences, and you carry the burden of showing them.
• Government bodies, registered charities, political parties and candidates, and educational institutions calling the households of their own current and former students are exempt from the register, not from the Standard.
• Every number submitted uses a wash, so clean the list first.
• A company calling a registered number faces up to $36,400 per call and $728,000 a day for a first order, at the current penalty unit.