As Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots continues to carpet-bomb Australian voters with unsolicited campaign text messages, the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) has issued a statement warning that political spam risks undermining public trust in all digital communications.
While political parties remain legally exempt from Australia’s anti-spam and privacy laws, ADMA CEO Andrea Martens stressed that respecting consumer preferences should still be a priority.
“Failing to respect consumer choice risks undermining the purpose of the message as well as eroding public confidence in digital marketing, regardless of the source,” Martens told B&T.
“ADMA believes that to build brand trust, a business, organisation or other entity must have genuine consumer engagement,” she said.
Industry Calls Out Legal Loophole
ADMA’s commentary highlights growing industry concern about the reputational damage caused by political text campaigns — particularly those, like Palmer’s, that offer no opt-out and little clarity.
While commercial operators are tightly regulated under the Spam Act, political parties face none of the same obligations. There’s no need for consent, no unsubscribe function, and no transparency around where phone numbers come from.
“There are strong laws in place to protect consumers from unsolicited and unwelcome commercial spam and telemarketing, which are rigorously enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and ensure commercial operators are held accountable. However, for reasons related to the implied right to freedom of political communication, political parties are exempt from those laws,” Martens explained.
Martens, however, warned that exploiting those exemptions could “undermine the purpose of the message”.
And the public agrees. The Trumpet of Patriots’ SMS blitz has prompted more than 1,000 formal complaints to Ad Standards, according to chair Gillian Franklin, who confirmed the number during the AANA RESET conference on Wednesday.
Franklin noted that while political ads currently fall outside the authority’s formal remit, such complaints still serve as “important indicators of modern consumer sentiment.”
A Broken System in the Digital Age
That sentiment is increasingly turning to frustration and that frustration is only deepening as the election enters its final stretch. Under Australia’s media blackout laws, political ads on television and radio were banned from midnight Thursday — a long-standing rule intended to give voters space to reflect.
But while your TV goes quiet, your phone does not.
Political advertising is still flooding digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and SMS — with no restrictions, no limits, and no opt-out option. It’s a striking irony: voters can mute the TV, but they can’t mute Clive Palmer.
Free TV Australia has called the blackout rules a “relic of the 1980s,” arguing the restrictions unfairly penalise regulated broadcasters while handing free rein to unregulated digital platforms.
Free TV Australia has labelled the blackout laws a “relic of the 1980s”, arguing that restrictions on traditional broadcasters make little sense when voters are still being bombarded on YouTube, social media and via SMS.
“It’s absurd,” said Free TV CEO Bridget Fair. “Broadcasters are banned from airing political ads in the final days before an election, while unregulated digital platforms are free to flood voters with content right up to — and including — polling day.”
“By election day, the majority of Australians will have already voted — many after seeing political ads on TV, online and everywhere in between. Yet somehow, traditional broadcasters are the only ones silenced,” she said.
“Regulation must evolve with the times … especially during election periods when access to clear, trustworthy information is most vital to voters,” she said.
Despite the backlash, the messages keep coming. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Radio he wishes the texts could be banned but stopped short of committing to reform, suggesting a ban “might not fit with legal requirements” for open political campaigning.
But until lawmakers act, there’s only one surefire way to stop the flood: turning off your phone. For now, millions of Australians will keep receiving campaign texts they never signed up for — with no way to opt out and no way to block them.
