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Australia
LawCurrent (amended)· ACMA; Department of Home Affairs (security parts)

No. 47, 1997 (Compilation No. 117, 4 June 2026)

Telecommunications Act 1997

Prepared by Shubhank Suman · Last reviewed

Document page

CURRENT (amended)

Legal character
Statute
Region
Asia-Pacific

What it covers

The Act is Australia's core telecommunications statute. It covers carrier licensing and carriage service providers, industry codes and standards, consumer safeguards, and Part 13, which restricts the use and disclosure of information and communications by carriers and service providers, with permitted exceptions. Part 14 covers national interest matters and security obligations, and Part 15 sets the industry assistance framework (technical assistance requests and notices).

Why it matters

Part 13 is a key confidentiality rule for telecoms data in Australia; Parts 14 and 15 set security and law-enforcement assistance duties.

Refer to it when

Use it for disclosure of telecoms customer information, security duties of carriers, or agency requests for technical assistance.

AI, privacy and cybersecurity relevance

  • AI: Low
  • Privacy: High
  • Cyber: High

AI

LOW RELEVANCE

No AI-specific provisions.

Privacy

HIGH RELEVANCE

Part 13 restricts use and disclosure of communications information.

Cybersecurity

HIGH RELEVANCE

Security obligations and industry assistance.

Applicability

Carriers, carriage service providers and others in the Australian telecoms industry.

Current validity

CURRENT. The supplied copy is Compilation No. 117 (4 June 2026), in 3 volumes. Read the official PDF on this page for the operative text.

Read first

Part 1 → Part 13 → Part 14 → Part 15.

Provisions / sections covered

Part 3 – Carrier licensing

Licensing of carriers and licence conditions.

Part 6 – Industry codes and standards

Development and registration of codes.

Part 13 – Protection of communications

Offences for using or disclosing information, and exceptions.

Part 14 – National interest matters

Security obligations and directions.

Part 15 – Industry assistance

Technical assistance requests, notices and limits.

Subject-matter tags

  • Security
  • Enforcement and penalties
  • Registration and notification

Subject-matter tags describe what the indexed text discusses. They are not legal conclusions.

Related instruments in this library

Document page in the Knowledge Base - full text or PDF where it is available for this record.

This library locates primary and official sources. It does not interpret the law and it is not legal advice.