> ] 	At the moment there is a working group which is putting together some
> ] papers about the creation (for lack of a name) a Domain Name Authority for
> ] australia, which the government would rubber stamp, and which would control
> ] the overall .au namespace.
> 
> Wouldn't this muddy/confuse the derivation of authority for the DNS, if
> it was seen that a local government (ie: non-global in scope) had the
> authority to bless an organisation with control of a small piece of the
> DNS without reference to the IANA or its delegated authority for the *.au
> piece of the DNS (ie: Robert Elz).

Any organisation, regardless how well meant or who is in it, will
not be able to "assume" a position of an authority for .AU without
the approval of Robert Elz. kre has been involved in the earlier
meetings, and hopefully continues to support the development of such
an organisation.

I don't speak for Robert, but my guess is that this "structure" must
have wide community support and input. Everyone must agree that it will
do the job, and that any possibly bias or commercial interest will be
minimised. It must also be capable of doing the job well for the foreseeable
future. If the community is satisfied with all of this, and Robert can
see that the community is satisfied, then I believe that he will be more
than delighted to rid himself of the responsibility.

As a closing note, I've used the word "community" several times here.
This does not just mean ISPs. At the moment, ISPs happen to be the
largest interest group wrt the expansion of the DNS. In the same way that
Universities were the entire Australian Internet three short years, it is
likely that change will occur again. The forum must attempt to satisfy the
academic community, government, ISPs, current and future domain holders,
and worldwide users of the net, as well as any future stake holders that
we haven't (and can't) think of right now. Should be fun.

MM