[LINK] Australian Internet Domain Names Licensing Review

[David]

On Wednesday, 25 February 2026 11:37:59 AEDT Tom Worthington wrote:

> There is no proposal for changes, but key issues the panel has identified in the discussion paper are:
> 1. Domain name monetisation

For what it's worth, I think this is a very, very bad idea.

Domain names are a public resource which should be available to everyone and every organisation, no matter how cashed-up they are.  Otherwise small organisations with limited resources may find themselves locked out of a public voice unless they adopt a domain name which is meaningless in terms of the group's raison d'être.  For example, those suffering from the side effects of a particular drug may find themselves competing with a big drug company.

Monetisation in .au may result in domain names going outside the country, probably somewhere which sees an opportunity for an "export" industry like 'blah.org.pce' or, better still, 'blah.org.au.pce'  And I can think of other options...

This sort of idea IMHO is another version of a tariff regime which is being tried elsewhere as we speak.

_DavidL_