The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates broadcast and telecommunications, said it received 244 complaints about automated phone calls and text messages.

Almost all of the complaints were about ‘robocalls’, where a pre-recorded message is played when someone answers a call.

“The actual may figure may be higher, but there was insufficient information in a number of complaints received to be able to clearly state that the calls related to political matters,” an authority spokesperson said.

The authority might not be able to investigate in many circumstances, as political parties are allowed to phone people who have placed their numbers on the national Do Not Call register.

“The authority has no role in regulating calls that are not commercial in nature and is not able to prevent you from receiving the calls, nor can it investigate the caller,” the spokesperson said.

“If you do not wish to listen to someone talking to you about election issues, you should hang up the phone.

“It is not relevant whether calls are made by live operators or use recorded messages.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate political text messages sent just before polling day.

The messages said voters should back Labor at the election, and claimed that the Coalition had a plan to privatise Medicare.

Mr Turnbull said the messages had been designed to appear as though Medicare had sent them.

A spokesperson the communications authority would not investigate any political text messages.

“As messages containing the words ‘Liberal’ or ‘Labor’ were not commercial electronic messages under the Spam Act, the authority is not investigating them,” the spokesperson said.