Albanese ‘happy’ to ban annoying texts, won’t commit to make it happen

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared his opposition to the spam texts deluging Australian voters before the federal election this Saturday, but will not commit to changing the law to ban the practice.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party has been sending large volumes of texts, and the mainstream parties also have a history of using unsolicited messages to reach voters.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t commit to do anything to stop the text messages.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese said on Melbourne ABC radio on Wednesday that he was against the texts. “I wish that were the case [that the texts were banned],” Albanese said, before adding, “I’m not sure that that fits with our democracy and the capacity people have to campaign.

“I certainly think that would be a reasonable thing to do, to ban the texts. I’d be happy with that, but I’m not sure that it would fit in with other legal requirements about people having access.”

Australian law exempts political parties from many of the privacy and anti-spam rules that govern companies.

Has this happened before?

In 2022, voters received a text message on election day from the Liberal Party saying that an asylum seeker boat had been intercepted by Border Force before urging people to vote for the then-Morrison government.

In 2016, a text blast to voters in marginal seats falsely claimed that Malcolm Turnbull was trying to privatise Medicare, infuriating the then-prime minister. He called it an “extraordinary act of dishonesty”.

How do political parties get hold of my details?

Tegan Cohen, a research fellow at the Queensland University of Technology, said political parties can get Australians’ contact information from sources including the electoral roll or by blasting out the messages to randomly generated numbers and hoping they correspond to active phones.

“It’s hard to be certain without Trumpet of Patriots confirming their methods,” Cohen said. “One option is to purchase data from data brokers – firms which make a living from harvesting, analysing and selling detailed profiles.”

That means that when a voter gives their information to book a flight or hotel, or signs up to a gym, their data could be sold to a data broker that ultimately provides it to a political campaign. It can be very difficult to trace how data is bought and sold, especially if Australians provide their details to companies based overseas that may not be caught by or obey local privacy laws.

What can I do to stop them, and is it legal?

In a statement, Palmer hit back at Albanese and said the major parties had colluded to pass the 2003 Spam Act, which exempts politicians from many of its requirements, making the text messages perfectly legal.

“It was the Liberals and Labor that both voted in favour of legislation that allows political parties to SMS,” Palmer said.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie also criticised the major parties, saying they would not change spam laws because they were “just as bad” as Palmer.

Lambie, who quit the Palmer United Party more than a decade ago and now heads her own political party in the Jacqui Lambie Network, was asked on ABC News Breakfast this morning about the unsolicited messages and whether laws needed to change.

“You know what? This is what the majors don’t want to do because they use the same method,” she said. “It’s just that Clive Palmer has got more money than what they have, and he’s spamming a lot more.”

The Australian Law Reform Commission and the Attorney-General’s Department, in its review of the Privacy Act in 2022, have both suggested changes to legislation to narrow the exemptions that benefit political parties and force them to be more transparent.

Cohen said: “In my view, such changes would not only be consistent with the Constitution, but community expectations.”

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