"Letter from NOIE to auDA
The National Office for the Information Economy
Department of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts
Mr Michael Malone
Chair, auDA,
c/- iiNet
Level 9, 250 St Georges Tce
Perth WA 6000
June 1999
Dear Mr Malone,
Congratulations on your election to the auDA interim Board and
appointment as Chairman.
As you are aware, the National Office for the Information Economy
(NOIE) has been acting as the lead agency within Government on
the issue of developing a new system for the administration of
the .au domain. I am writing to you in that capacity, following
discussions with a range of other interested agencies within the
Federal government (?the agencies?).
The Government?s overall objective in relation to the management
of the .au domain is to ensure that there are appropriate, stable
and sustainable arrangements for the management of the .au
domain, which the Government sees as an increasingly important
element of Australia?s communications infrastructure. The
Government has a strong preference for industry self-regulation,
as long as we can have confidence that this will meet the overall
objective.
These considerations underpinned the key criteria which NOIE
initially indicated to the .au Working Group would need to be
satisfied in order for Government to have confidence that an
industry self regulatory process would be capable of being made
to work.
Those criteria were that any scheme would need to be:
· open
· transparent
· scaleable
· stable
· responsive and accountable to the internet community (including
the various elements of both the supply and demand sides), and
· self-funding.
The agencies consider that the formation of auDA has the
potential to meet these requirements, although further work needs
to be done. The election of the interim board has been an
important first step, and we look forward to working with the
board in order to bring about a situation whereby government can
be confident that all of the objectives will be met in practice.
The remainder of this letter sets out the key areas where the
agencies consider that further work needs to be done.
First, as you are aware, the .au Working Group consciously
decided not to make any decisions about the structural funding
arrangements for auDA, on the basis that this was appropriately a
matter for the incoming board. This is a critical issue both for
the longer-term sustainability of the company and the process,
and for the acceptance by stakeholders across the whole Internet
community that
the process is transparent and fair.
Second, there remains an issue about the accountability
criterion. NOIE has received representations from a number of
important stakeholders within the internet community expressing
concern about the degree to which the current board is in fact
able, or willing, to take account of the views and legitimate
interests of those stakeholders. It is important that the board
move quickly to address these concerns, and establish operational
guidelines and/or other mechanisms that will give all parties
confidence that the process can be made to work in practice.
Further, on this issue, the agencies consider that the interim
board should move quickly to work out arrangements which will be
workable in the longer term for those second level domains for
which there is a well defined, non-commercial community of
interest inherent in the domain. The main domains which we see
as falling into this category are .gov.au, .edu.au, and
.csiro.au. We believe that working through these arrangements
will be of assistance both in itself, and in promoting confidence
within the wider Internet community.
Third, the board needs to make significant progress in providing
guidance as to how it sees auDA addressing the issues concerned
with the ensuring the operational stability of the DNS in
Australia and promoting the utility,
value and good reputation of
the .au domain space.
Given that there may be several different ways of satisfying
Government requirements listed above, I believe it would be
useful to discuss these matters, and to identify options with a
view to establishing an agreed process for moving these matters
forward.
Our sense is that the internet community agrees that the
development of an appropriate new system for the administration
of the .au domain space is now well over due. I therefore seek
your cooperation in progressing this matter in a timely manner.
I look forward to establishing a productive working relationship
with you in this matter.
NOIE?s contact officer in this matter is Dr Erica Roberts. She
can be contacted on 02 62711607 or by e-mail at
erica.roberts@noie.gov.au
As a separate matter, staff of the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission have indicated that auDA, as a collective
organisation with potential competitors as members, may
constitute an arrangement that substantially lessens competition
in a market and therefore raises concerns under the Trade
Practices Act 1974. Consequently, it may be wise for the interim
auDA board to seek authorisation of auDA?s constitution under the
Act. Commission staff have suggested that it would be
appropriate for the auDA interim board to consider the Trade
Practices Act compliance of auDA and then contact the Commission
to discuss this matter. The contact officer from the Commission
is Mr Ken Walliss, who can be contacted on (02) 6243 1114, or
krw@accc.gov.au. I would urge you to take up this offer.
Yours sincerely
Chris Cheah
General Manager
Regulatory Framework and Bandwidth"