Legal update: archive, The Unsolicited Political Communications Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 (Cth): balancing consumer choice with political freedoms in voter communications provides an overview of the Bill, the background to its introduction and key proposed amendments.

In summary if the Bill is passed it will amend:

• The Electoral Act, to ensure actors used for the purpose of a political telephone campaign are identified as such at the beginning of the voice call.
• The Spam Act, to require political parties to provide an unsubscribe function for all unsolicited electronic communications, including text messages, containing electoral content that aims to influence the way electors vote in a federal election.

The Bill marks further reform to spam legislation following the recent commencement of the Spam Regulations 2021 (Cth) on 1 April 2021. For information on these regulations, see Article, Are your electronic business marketing communications compliant with the Spam Regulations 2021 (Cth)?