Internet governance
The Department participates in a number of domestic and international forums concerned with internet governance. These forums consider issues such as domain name allocation, technical standards, trademark protection on the internet and internet security.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plays a key role in oversight of the critical internet resources and acts as a forum for stakeholder discussion in this area.
ICANN is developing a process that will allow for the introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) to the internet.
The Department has developed a fact sheet on ICANN’s new gTLD process that provides information on ICANN’s plan, what it means and how you can get involved.
- New generic top level domains (gTLDs) (PDF, 978 KB)
- New generic top level domains (gTLDs) (RTF, 2 MB)
The Internet Governance Forum, a multi-stakeholder discussion on internet public policy issues, is a key outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society. The Forum is held annually over a five-year period from 2006.
.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is the independent, not-for-profit administrator of the ‘.au’ country code top level domain.
The Department closely monitors developments on internet governance and handles a range of international and domestic issues, including Australia's participation in the Government Advisory Committee to the ICANN.
