1. No, but possibly 5-10 years down the track
2. Eventually weaken .com.au space
Allocating who has the rights to each name is going to be the biggest issue the AUDA board have faced in a long time (probably since the Policy changes in the mid 2000s). For me the longer it takes to get this right the better.
E.g.
Do government departments, charities and education providers take preference?
Does the person who registered their name first take preference?
Does the person with an actual company with the same OR similar name that has been trading for more than 3 years take preference?
Does it just come down to whether OR not you own the .COM.AU?
Here's an example of an old client of mine who would benefit from the new .AU space:
In the mid 90's when we started to register domain names, there was a clear set of guides associated with each extension (not enforceable, but understood). .NET.au for example, was never going to take off because it use was really supposed to be for ISPs OR other companies involved in networking and web tech.
So I have a client who still has and uses the.net.au name as they registered it back in the 90's based on the above principles, but didn't get the COM.au name at the time. In the early 2000s, they realized they should have both, but unfortunately the .com.au name was registered. AND hasn't been used in any real capacity since (parked pages, landing pages, companies that seemed to be only created based on wanting to make use of the name etc.).
So for them the opportunity to register the .AU would be ideal.
So who takes preference in this circumstance?