Cold calling in Australia: the Do Not Call Register, calling times and the rules

Cold calling is legal in Australia, and it has the clearest rulebook of any market we sell in. Two sets of rules do the work: the Do Not Call Register decides whom you may call, and the telemarketing Industry Standard decides when and how. This guide covers both, with the source for each rule, plus the Spam Act rules for the text you send afterwards.

The short answer

Checked 25 September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; the rules have exemptions this summary leaves out, so read the linked source for anything you rely on.

What counts as a telemarketing call

Under the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, a telemarketing call is a voice call made to offer, advertise or solicit goods or services, land or an interest in land, a business or investment opportunity, or donations (Do Not Call Register: using the register). A prospecting call about selling someone’s home is squarely inside that definition.

Some calls aren’t telemarketing at all: product recalls, fault checks, appointment reminders and rescheduling, payment calls, and calls you’ve been asked to make about an order, request or enquiry. Charities, educational institutions, government bodies, registered political parties, social researchers and opinion pollsters have limited exemptions from the Register, but they still have to follow the Industry Standard.

The Do Not Call Register

People can list their home phone, personal mobile and fax numbers on the register for free. Business numbers can’t be added, but a number used for both can be registered if personal use is more than half of its use (ACMA: Do Not Call Register). Once a number has been on the register for 30 days, you can only call it with the person’s consent or under an exemption.

Washing your list

“Washing” means checking your list against the register. You need an account and a paid subscription, and you can wash through the website, a quick-wash upload, automated file transfer or a real-time API (washing process overview). The result tells you which numbers you mustn’t call and which you may call within the permitted times.

A wash protects you for 30 days: the ban doesn’t apply if you washed your list in the last 30 days and the number wasn’t on the register then. So wash right before a campaign, and wash again before you keep working a list past the 30-day mark.

Consent: express or inferred

• Express consent is when someone has specifically agreed to telemarketing calls from you. If they didn’t agree for a set period or indefinitely, it expires after three months.
• Inferred consent comes from someone’s conduct and an existing relationship. A bank’s credit card customer might reasonably expect a call about the same bank’s home loans; a cold call from a different company wouldn’t be covered.
• Consent ends the moment someone says they don’t want your calls, and can no longer be inferred.

A number being published somewhere, or scribbled on an old sign-in sheet, isn’t consent by itself. When in doubt, wash it and call it like any other number.

Calling times

The Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 applies to every telemarketing call to an Australian number, whether or not it’s on the register. Calls can only be made in these times, unless the person has consented to a call at another time, and for calls outside the window that consent must be express:

The national public holidays are New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, including any day given in lieu.

The times run on the called person’s clock, and Australia has three standard time zones and five in summer, because New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and South Australia move to daylight saving while Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia don’t. The Standard also covers people on the move: if you learn that the person isn’t at their usual residential address and it’s outside the permitted times where they are, end the call unless they specifically ask to continue. Our calling hours guide compares these times with the US, Canada and the UK.

Caller ID, identification and ending the call

• Caller ID must be on whenever you make or attempt a call, and the number shown must accept return calls for at least 30 days. Someone who rings it back must be able to find out who employs the caller, the purpose of the call and who caused it to be made.
• Say why you’re calling at the start. The Standard sets out what you must tell people at the start of a call and during it; a call with two purposes must state both straight away.
• End the call immediately when asked, or when the person otherwise makes clear they don’t want to continue.

B2B cold calling in Australia

Because business numbers can’t be registered, a list of company switchboards and business lines mostly won’t hit the register. Two catches remain. First, the Industry Standard still applies, so the calling times, caller ID and termination rules cover business calls too. Second, sole traders’ mobiles are often mostly personal, and a number with more than half personal use can be registered. If a B2B list includes mobiles, wash it.

Follow-up texts: the Spam Act

The text you send after a call is a separate rulebook. Under the Spam Act 2003, a commercial text needs consent (express, or inferred from an ongoing relationship the message relates to), must identify you with correct contact details, and must include an unsubscribe option, such as “Reply STOP”, that works for at least 30 days and is honoured within five working days (ACMA: avoid sending spam). You can’t send a text to ask for consent, because that text is itself marketing. If the person said on the call that they’d like the details by text, record that; it’s your proof.

Penalties

The ACMA takes a graduated approach and resolves most complaints informally, but the numbers are real (compliance and breaches):

• Infringement notices of up to $222,000 for each day contraventions of the Do Not Call Register Act occurred.
• Court-ordered penalties of up to $2.22 million per day.
• Up to $250,000 per contravention of the Industry Standard.

The penalties are civil, not criminal, and they also reach anyone who arranges the calls, such as a business that hands its list to a call centre.

Australian numbers and real estate prospecting

• Mobiles start with 04 (+61 4 in international format). Landlines use the 02, 03, 07 and 08 area codes, and mobiles carry no location at all, so a mobile-heavy list can’t tell you the lead’s time zone.
• Appraisal and prospecting calls to homeowners are telemarketing calls: wash the list and stay inside the calling times, including the 5pm Saturday cut-off that catches weekend prospecting sessions.
• Past clients and landlords you manage may give you inferred consent for calls related to that relationship. A buyer who once walked through an open home is not automatically a consented contact.

How Cold Call X fits the Australian rules

Cold Call X is a power dialler for iPhone. It rings one lead at a time, from your own number over your own mobile network, with you on every call, so your caller ID shows unless you’ve hidden it, and anyone who rings back reaches you. It works with Australian numbers, and your leads stay on your iPhone and never touch our servers.

• Calling Hours only dials leads during their own daytime, in any time zone, which handles the east-to-west problem across a national list.
• Do Not Call list. Add anyone who asks you to stop and they’re blocked across every list and every future import.
• Text templates for after a voicemail or a booked callback. Use them for people who’ve agreed to hear from you, with your name and an opt-out line.

Know its limits. Calling Hours isn’t a copy of the Industry Standard, so stop at 5pm on Saturdays and don’t call on Sundays or national public holidays. The in-app Do Not Call list is a personal suppression list: it doesn’t check numbers against the Do Not Call Register, so wash your file before you import it. For how the dialler works, see the iPhone dialler guide.

An Australian cold calling checklist

• Wash the list against the Do Not Call Register within 30 days before you call, and again before you keep working it past that.
• Treat mobiles on B2B lists as possibly registered, and wash them.
• Call 9am to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, in the lead’s time zone. No Sundays, no national public holidays.
• Keep caller ID on, and make sure the number takes return calls for 30 days.
• State the purpose of the call at the start, and end it immediately when asked.
• Keep records of consent: who agreed, when and how. Express consent without a set period lapses after three months.
• Only text people who have agreed to it, identify yourself, and include a way to reply STOP.