Australia's Spam Act regulates the sending of email, SMS, and other electronic messages of a commercial nature with Australian Internet links. The Act does not cover the vast majority of Spam, which originates outside Australia.

The Spam Act regulates commercial electronic messages by providing that, subject to limited exceptions, they must:

a)    Not, send communiqués without the prior consent of the recipient. (That consent may be express or implied ("reasonably inferred") from the conduct, business and other relationships of the person or organisation concerned.);

b)    Contain a functional unsubscribe facility; and

c)    Accurately identify the sender of the message.

The Spam Act prohibits the use of address harvest software (as well as the lists generated by such software). The Act draws a distinction between commercial electronic messages and "designated commercial electronic messages", which the Act does not prohibit. A designated commercial electronic message is a message, which only contains information, and certain additional information about the sender of the message, but only if the message would not constitute a commercial electronic message without that additional information.

Electronic messages from government bodies, political parties, religious organisations, charities, or educational institutions are designated commercial electronic messages.

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