Julian Grant with his Swans-fanatic son Cooper, at their Redhead home. Julian paid $50 each for two tickets to the recent Swans-GWS Giants final, only to discover he had been sold scalped tickets through the resale Ticketmaster site. Picture:Peter Clark

Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon will today begin a bid to prohibit ticket brokers from using computerised software or “bots” that beat ticket website software then snap up prime real estate at top concerts.

Live Performance Australia — the lobby group for ticketing companies, music promoters and venue operators — urged Canberra to ban bots in 2014. At the time neither the parliamentary inquiry committee investigating scalping nor the Federal Government were persuaded.

Now fans of Guns N’ Roses face having to pay as much as $2875 to get close to rock legends Axl Rose and Slash — nearly five times the actual price of tickets.

PUBLIC DEFENDER: Have your legal questions answered

“The use of bots is a massive problem for the industry,” a ticketing source said.

Live Performance chief executive Evelyn Richardson said the computer software being used had become even more sophisticated and there were now more reselling platforms.

A report by New York’s Attorney General released earlier this year found a single broker obtained more than 1000 U2 tickets in one minute despite the vendor having a four-ticket limit.

While that parliamentary committee went no further than to suggest Australian authorities keep a closer eye be kept on reselling, there was a dissenter: Senator Xenophon.

He recommended the Abbott Government put in place a “prohibition on ticket reselling” for anything more than 10 per cent above the original price.

Prices for the best Guns N' Roses Melbourne tickets on Ticketmaster Resale.Source:Supplied

The-then Upper House Lone Ranger’s recommendation was rejected.

But Senator Xenophon can no longer be so easily ignored. After the recent double dissolution election he wields three Senate seats and has a team member in the Lower House for the first time.

Plus he has a new precedent in arguing for reform: US Congress earlier this month passed the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act to make the use of the software a criminal “unfair and deceptive practice”.

“I want to replicate the US laws to protect people from ticket scalpers,” Senator Xenophon told News Corp Australia.

The days of scalpers standing out the front of venues with tickets hidden under their jackets had long since passed, he said.

“These people are using technology to doover consumers.”

Without action, Australia would be seen as a “soft target”, Senator Xenophon said, adding that his next step would be to circulate the US legislation among the Coalition and Labor in a bid to build consensus for reform.

Meanwhile, Ms Richardson said Live Performance Australia would likely to develop an industry code of practice for the “secondary market” but she would not say what it would involve.

The LPA already has a ticketing code which its members have to follow.