Senator GREIG (6:16 PM) —While I do not agree with Senator Lundy that a good case can be made for exemptions, I do agree that, given that exemptions are going to form a part of this bill, those exempt organisations should also be subject to an unsubscribe facility. For example, I wonder whether Senator Kemp, who no doubt endorses the legislation, wants to receive a whole lot of unsolicited emails from the Labor Party advising him of their various policies into the next election ad nauseam without the opportunity of asking them to stop.

Senator Kemp —They would be short! I would like to find out what their policies are.

Senator GREIG —You have the opt-in option, Minister, and you can become an enthusiastic reader—

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Brandis)—Order, Senator Kemp! None of this raillery across the chamber!

Senator GREIG —More specifically, there would be many people in the community who would find some political and religious spamming objectionable and they should have every right to say no to that. We have seen, particularly with international spam, that the alleged opt-out provisions they come with are very deceitful and annoying. I am sure many of us have had the `click here if you want to unsubscribe' message. It is deceitful. All you are really doing is confirming to the spammer that you are receiving their spam, and then they know that they have got a live one and you will get more from them. We need to make sure, as best as we can, that that practice is not facilitated within an Australian jurisdiction.

I can only reiterate that ideally from the Democrats' perspective we would like to see no exemptions. We would like to see a prohibition on all spam. But given that exemptions will form a part of this legislation when it is finalised, it ought to be the case that even those exempt groups, as Senator Lundy has said, demonstrate and provide for Internet etiquette in terms of giving those who receive it the right to say, `No more, thank you.'