The Federal Opposition has lashed out at the government's latest initiative to reduce spam, claiming it has come too late.

The Federal Government has directed the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) to investigate the effectiveness of measures to counter spam.

Acknowledging figures suggesting that the volume of spam received by Australians has grown dramatically over the past year, minister for communications, Senator Richard Alston, said "there is a need for constant vigilance" of the problem.

However, shadow parliamentary secretary for consumer affairs, Alan Griffin, claims that the government is simply beginning to recognise that measures it has taken in the past are ineffective.

Griffin was particularly critical if the approach that the former minister for consumer affairs, Joe Hockey, took when dealing with the problem.

"One year later, Senator Alston has worked out that Joe Hockey's approach to spam wasn't tough at all - in fact it was a complete joke," Griffin said. "I hope it won't take the Government as long to fix the problem as it did to recognise it."

Since May 2000 the government has endorsed two voluntary codes of practice drafted by the Australian Direct Marketing Association and the Internet Industry Association, in an attempt to curb spam. Recent extensions to the Privacy Act give authorities statutory power to take action against spam operators.

Griffin said that the Opposition has consistently maintained that, while the two codes are properly formulated they lack the necessary legal "teeth" to effectively deter spam operators. He says the situation is inverted when it comes to privacy legislation, which he says is legally strong but poorly though out.

According to Troy Rollo, from the Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (CAUBE), the Privacy Act requires entities to seek customer consent to use their e-mail for marketing purposes at the time it is collected 'if practicable'. If not, they must provide an opt-out measure.

Opt-out measures place the onus on the consumer to indicate that they don't want to their e-mail address used for marketing purposes.

"Opt-out is inherently weaker than opt-in," Griffin said. "It's an example of the government saying don't do this but not doing anything about it."

Rollo was more supportive of the government's policies but agreed that the government was reviewing its measures because current legislation fails to deal with unscrupulous online marketers who aren't prepared to adhere to voluntary codes.

"They've probably done a lot more than the US government," he said, explaining that the Australian government has been prepared to state that spam is unacceptable.

According to Rollo, the government should consider implementing legislation that would make spam operators liable to pay recipients to receive unsolicited e-mail. Noting the volumes of e-mail operators send, the practice would immediately become financially unviable, Rollo said.

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