>  auDA is not a Government organisation.  It is a non-Profit
>  Limited company made up of members.  The Australian Government
>  has endorsed auDA to the be the regulatory authority / manager
>  for .au domain names.

Can you send me a copy of the endorsement please.

>For those not familiar with the long history of .au domain name regulation,

And the demise of the first attempt ADNA.

>the fact that auDA is independent of the Government is not an accident.

Certainly not.  Part 26 of the Telecommunications Act does however allow 
the minister to appoint an Administrator, but this has not yet 
happened.  auDA is NOT endorsed under Part 26.

>Over a period long predating auDA's formation, the Federal Government made
>clear, publicly, that its preferred option for .au regulation was that it
>not be done by the government, but by an industry/community organisation.

Oh if it were only so simple.  Actually I have the video tape of exactly 
what was said in Singapore by Paul Twomey who use to work for NOIE - the 
Government Agency.

When everyone was asked what they were taking back to their countries after 
the IFWP conf, he said:

"I can see we can't control this [DNS] from here, so I'll be taking back 
that we need to find other ways."

One day I'll put the video online.

>Some governments around the world have chosen to do the regulation of their
>ccTLD internally, others have encouraged an independent organisation to do
>so.

It all depends on where the best cost benefit is.  With NO government 
administration of the DNS at all, they don't come under fire or legal 
action from the stakeholders, they collect a flat 10% on all transactions, 
and it costs them nothing.

I can see why I'd like someone else to run it too, save all that 
responsibility and legal costs!

>Which is optimum tends to be a matter of philosopy rather than fact.

Now that I totally agree with.  I'm certainly not for Government 
administration of DNS, but I'm not for auDA's philosophy 
either.  Especially as ICANN starts to crumble.