Australian outreach rules
Can you cold call a business in Australia?
Yes, and the rules are narrower than most people think but wider than most people fear. Business numbers are not eligible for the Do Not Call Register, so a genuine business line is not screened by it. Mobiles are where it gets interesting. Separately, an industry standard sets the hours you may call and what you must do on the call itself.
General information, not legal advice. Checked against the Do Not Call Register on 22 September 2026. For email and SMS, see the Spam Act rules.
Who you may ring
The Do Not Call Register, and who is actually on it
The register takes numbers used primarily for private or domestic purposes. Business telephone numbers are not eligible, which is why business-to-business calling is possible at all.
Two other categories can be registered: numbers used exclusively for faxes, including business fax numbers, and numbers used exclusively by government bodies. Everything else turns on that word primarily.
Registration is now indefinite. Numbers used to drop off after a period and no longer do, so a number stays until its owner takes it off. In practice that means a list you washed eighteen months ago is not a washed list, and the register grows in one direction.
The part that catches people
Mobiles are the ambiguous case
A mobile used mainly for personal calls can be registered even if its owner also runs a business from it. The register says a number is less likely to be eligible if it is mainly used for business calls or sits on a business plan, and it deliberately publishes no percentage.
You will see a 50 per cent rule quoted in various places, including in an earlier version of our own guide. It is not in the register's guidance and we have taken it out. The honest position is that there is no threshold you can apply from your desk, which is exactly why the answer is procedural rather than analytical: if you are calling mobile numbers, wash the list against the register first. Reasoning about whose phone it really is has no legal standing and takes longer than the wash. The register's eligibility guidance is the source.
When you may ring
Permitted calling hours
Set by the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017, and they apply to all telemarketing calls, not only to consumers.
| When | Permitted hours |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 9am to 8pm |
| Saturday | 9am to 5pm |
| Sunday | No calls |
| National public holidays | No calls |
The hours follow the person you are calling, not the person calling. A Melbourne team ringing Perth at 5pm their own time is calling at 3pm in Perth, which is fine. The same team ringing Perth at 9am Melbourne time is calling at 7am, which is not. If you find out mid-call that someone is somewhere it is outside permitted hours, end the call unless they ask you to carry on.
On the call itself
Four things every call has to do
These are not best practice, they are the standard. Three of them cost nothing to get right and the fourth is a systems question.
- Show your number. Calling line identification has to be enabled. A withheld number is a breach before anyone answers.
- Say who you are and why. Your name, who you are calling on behalf of, and the purpose of the call.
- Stop when asked. End the call immediately if the person asks you to, or indicates they do not want to continue.
- Keep the callback number alive. Any number you give has to still work at least 30 days after the call.
Before you dial
A checklist you can work through
Five things. If all five are true, the mechanics are in order, which is most of what compliance is in practice.
- Mobile numbers are washed against the Do Not Call Register, and washed recently.
- Landlines we are calling are genuine business numbers.
- Calls happen inside permitted hours, in the prospect’s time zone, not ours.
- Caller ID is on, and the callback number will still work in 30 days.
- Everyone calling knows to end the call the moment it is asked for.
Where software helps, and where it does not
What Empiraa Signal does about this
Signal places calls through your own Twilio account and keeps every call beside the prospect it belongs to, so you have a dated record of who was called, when, and what came of it. When a complaint arrives a year later, that record is the whole defence.
What it does not do, and this matters more than the part it does: Signal does not wash numbers against the Do Not Call Register for you, and it will not stop you dialling outside permitted hours. Those are yours to run. Any vendor whose software claims to make you compliant is selling you something, because the obligation sits with the caller.
The email side of all this is at is cold email legal in Australia, and the longer version with worked examples is chapter 7 of Grow Your Sales in 2027, which is free.
Questions people actually ask
Australian cold calling, answered
Can I cold call a business in Australia?
Generally yes. Business telephone numbers are not eligible for the Do Not Call Register, so calls to a genuine business line are not screened by it. You still have to call inside the permitted hours, display your number, say who you are and why you are calling, and stop immediately if asked.
Are mobile numbers covered by the Do Not Call Register?
They can be. The register accepts numbers used primarily for private or domestic purposes, and that includes mobiles. A number is less likely to be eligible if it is mainly used for business calls or sits on a business plan, but the register publishes no percentage test. Since many owners of growing businesses run everything through one mobile, wash mobile numbers against the register rather than guessing. Check eligibility on the register.
What hours can I make sales calls in Australia?
9am to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, under the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017. No calls on Sundays or national public holidays. The hours follow the person you are calling, so a Perth prospect is on Perth time.
Do I have to show my number when I call?
Yes. Calling line identification has to be enabled, so your number displays. Any number you give for a callback has to still work at least 30 days after the call.
How long does a number stay on the Do Not Call Register?
Indefinitely. Registrations used to lapse and no longer do, so a number stays on the register until its owner removes it. A list washed two years ago is not washed.
Does the Spam Act cover phone calls?
No. The Spam Act 2003 covers commercial electronic messages, which is email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging. Phone calls are governed by the Do Not Call Register Act and the telemarketing industry standard instead. If you run email and phone in the same sequence, you are working under two separate sets of rules. The email rules, in plain English.
Question not answered here? Ask ANI and get a straight answer.
Show your working
Primary sources
Checked against these on 22 September 2026. They are the authority; this page is a plain-English reading of them, and it is general information rather than legal advice.
- Do Not Call Register, registering numbers for which numbers are eligible and how long registration lasts.
- Do Not Call Register, industry standards for calling hours, calling line identification, callback numbers and ending a call.