A recent auDA Names Policy Panel, of which your contributor was a member, recommended that second level registrations be introduced into .au. The recommendation was accepted by the board and now auDA have announced the next steps for their introduction. The changes have been given added impetus following the introduction of second level registrations in .nz (New Zealand) and .uk (United Kingdom).

The final report from the Panel looking at second level registrations for Australia’s country code top level domain (ccTLD) took into account not only Panel members' input over 10 months of deliberations, but also feedback received during two rounds of public consultation. The public consultation process invited individuals, organisations, businesses and auDA members, across a wide range of stakeholder groups, to submit their comments on the Panel's work. auDA encouraged the broadest level of engagement through the media (including radio and print media interviews), as well as through direct emailing the invitation to thousands of .au domain name owners.

In addition to the public consultations by the Panel, the Board also commissioned independent market research, which showed that 60% of respondents were likely or highly likely to register “yourname.au” if it was available.

Now auDA has announced the steps with an extensive public consultation in the formal policy development process. This will include commissioning independent market research, both quantitative (using online surveys) and qualitative (using interviews with selected key stakeholders). This research will ensure policy development reflects stakeholder feedback and industry experience.

There have also been a number of independent experts invited to sit on a Direct Registration Advisory Panel (AP) to review feedback from the research and draft policy development.

Phase one of the qualitative interviews commenced on 14 February 2017.