Print businesses win with Do Not Call decision

Federal government’s decision not to extend Do Not Call Register to include business numbers welcomed by printing industry.

The news came last week when Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, (pictured) announced that the government will not proceed with the proposal to extend the Register to include business numbers in the current legislation.

According to Printing Industries national manager for policy and government affairs, Hagop Tchamkertenian, it was a commonsense decision. “Had the government proceeded with its intended policy of including businesses on the Do Not Call Register, this would have had a significant impact on many of our members who rely on business-to-business communication for their sales,” he said.

Leading up to the verdict, Printing Industries made a submission expressing its opposition and collected data and information from its members, proving that the change could be detrimental to business at a time when many printing companies are already struggling. “We surveyed the industry to help us assess the impact and presented the government with these findings as part of a joint campaign with our colleagues from the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA),” Hagop said.

“The evidence was enough to convince the government that business would be significantly negatively impacted because legitimate business communications would be impeded.”

Rob Edwards, CEO of ADMA believes that businesses nation-wide will benefit from the verdict. “This decision is very welcome,” he said. “The extension of the Do Not Call Register to business numbers, if it had proceeded would have had significant negative impacts on every day business communications and hampered economic activity in general.”