Australian Domain Administrator (auDA) Considers Proposals For New .au Domains

The Australian Domain Name Administrator (auDA) is responsible for the development and implementation of policy relating to the use and allocation of .au domains. There are currently 16 active second level domains (2LDs) available for use in the .au space. Each 2LD is for a specific purpose. auDA policy restricts the type of entities that may register a domain name and also the type of 2LD that may be used by each relevant entity. Some of the currently available 2LDs include com.au (for general commercial use), id.au (for use by individuals) and gov.au (for use by government bodies and departments). On 1 October 2009, auDA called for public proposals for new 2LDs and subsequently set up the New 2LDs Advisory Panel to evaluate proposals and provide recommendations to auDA. Subject to public consultation, auDA is also considering re-activating the existing conf.au and info.au domains, which became inactive following their introduction in 2002. auDA has since received two