Labor is calling on the Government to rethink the way its agencies communicate with Australian families and businesses by phone.
 
Australians are getting absolutely smashed by scammers on their phones and its past time the Government realised the world has changed.
 
Unsolicited phone calls from legitimate Government agencies opens the door for scammers to mimic them and dupe families and businesses.
 
One of the most common and harmful scams is the “ATO debt” scam, where fraudsters impersonate tax office debt collectors using unsolicited phone calls.
 
The fact the Australia Tax Office recently resumed the use of unsolicited phone calls to collect legitimate tax debts serves to help the scammers.
 
Labor unreservedly supports the ATO’s vigorous program to collect legitimate tax debts and encourages the Tax Office in its efforts to do so.
 
But the unintended harm to Australia families and small businesses through the use of unsolicited phone calls must be taken into consideration and ways found to reduce that harm.
 
For two years the Morrison Government has ignored the warnings about the exponential rise in scams.
 
For two years Scott Morrison has done nothing while scams have quadrupled.
 
For two years cybercriminals have been ripping off Australians to the tune of $33bn a year and growing.
 
Labor has announced our policy to deal with scams if we’re elected to Government, including the establishment of a National Anti-Scam Centre based on the successful British model.
 
Reviewing the phone-based communication procedures for Government agencies is one way Scott Morrison can help address the problem right now.
 
It’s disappointing he’s not seen fit to date to move to protect Australians and the economy from the damage these scams are doing.
 
But it’s never too late to join the fight against the criminals perpetrating these crimes and we implore the Government to get on board.