Under the new election laws, personal details held by the Electoral Commission can no longer be sold for commercial purposes, including mass marketing data bases.

A spokesperson for the State Attorney General Michael Atkinson said electronic forms of the electoral role would no longer be available for sale but the hard copy versions were attainable.

“Anyone can get a hard copy except telemarketers, as you have to declare where you are from,” he said.

“If anyone is found abusing the electoral role they would be fined.”

The penalty for unauthorised distribution of electoral details has increase eight-fold under the new legislation with fines ranging from $1250 to $10,000.

State Attorney General Michael Atkinson said the decision was made after public consultation and took into account modern times.

“Research by the Federal Privacy Commissioner found that 70 per cent of consumers do not think the electoral roll should be available for commercial marketing purposes and we agree,” he said.