The Telemarketer menace !

Those with a telephone have long protested that inevitable call during the meal hour from a telemarketer trying to flog mobile phones, financial advice or an overseas holiday. At long last the Federal government has moved to do something about it !
A piece of legislation has established a " no call " regimen where subscribers apply to have their name and number added to the list telemarketers are forbidden to call. The first infringement results in a warning and added breaches result in a fine.
It sounds wonderful, until you read the small print and see just who is excluded from the calling embargo.
You will still receive calls from educational bodies, religious organizations, charities, government agencies - both Federal and state - and members of parliament - and even those hopefulls who are trying to be elected to parliament.
And that's not all. The Australian Direct Marketing Association ( ADMA ) has five hundred members who will adhere to this code, but the ban will have no effect on callers from other countries - and as telephone subscribers know - the majority of nuisance calls originate from call centres in India. Our government can not pass laws that apply to citizens of other countries.
It seems that the only casualties of this law will be legitimate Australian companies who will lose the right to present their product and will therefore be at a disadvantage to their overseas rivals.
Many people will adopt a defence that screens out nuisance calls. They invest in a speaker phone with an answering machine function and record a message advising that they can not take the call immediately - and advise the caller to record a message.
Telemarketers immediately hangup - but friends quickly learn to wait for the " beep ", then identify themselves - and the householder - on hearing that identity on the speaker phone - cuts in and takes the call.
Telemarketers are clever people - but do not underestimate the Australian public. There are ways and means of eliminating that nuisance call at meal time !