ACCAN, the national peak communications consumer organisation has called for the immediate introduction of legislation to remove the re-registration requirements of the Do Not Call Register after a Senate committee today lent its support to the reform.

In its report, the Senate Standing Committee on the Environment, Communications and the Arts saw merit in ACCAN's proposal to move to a permanent or longer term registration particularly for residential registrants but stopped short of recommending the change be part of the current Bill before parliament.

Allan Asher CEO of ACCAN said the inquiry missed the opportunity to make the register a more effective option for consumers.

“The government hasn’t dealt with our concerns in this Bill but it is now evident that there is broad support for the removal of the three year expiration for numbers on the Do Not Call Register,” Mr Asher said.

ACCAN is seeking legislative change to ensure that numbers on the register do not expire.

“We can’t afford any further delay. A new bill is urgently needed before numbers start being kicked off the register in just over two month’s time,” Mr Asher said.

The Committee has also recommended consideration of ACCAN’s proposal that quarantined numbers, those numbers that are discontinued by customers, are routinely removed from the register.

The Committee failed to endorse proposals to remove exempt categories from the register. Currently, charities, educational or religious organisations, registered political parties and independent members of parliament, electoral candidates and government bodies enjoy exempt status. ACCAN had argued that this exemption was no longer necessary as the Bill introduced a new registered consent measure to allow people to choose the categories of calls they wish to receive.

There are 4.1 million numbers registered on the Do Not Call Register and 1 million numbers are due to expire in May 2010.