The .au policy and regulatory body, auDA, has been through some turmoil recently with the resignation of the CEO and following a government review of the organisation, the entire board is being replaced. So it’s no surprise that plans to introduce domain name registrations at the second level, such as name.au, has been delayed.
In October auDA announced a further consultation that will run through the middle of the month along with a webinar, as well as the opportunity for written submissions by 30 November. According to auDA, feedback will be used to refine the new policies, for consideration and endorsement by the auDA Board, later this year. This follows a statement in August from auDA Chair Suzanne Ewart who said the organisation wasn’t ready to release second level domains.
However there are suggestions that the organisation is looking for a way to avoid introducing second level domains that were formally recommended by the 2015 Names Policy Panel and the Board in 2016.