From the CEO: Stepping into our new Strategy

In January this year, I highlighted key priorities for auDA in 2025. Thanks to the diligent work of the auDA team in the first half of the year, many of these priorities are well progressed.

Below I share more about these activities, what to expect in coming months and how to get involved.

This quarter is auDA’s first under our recently launched 2026–30 Strategy. The Strategy sets a clear vision for the next five years: for .au to be the primary online identity for Australian individuals and organisations, supported by a nimble and resilient auDA.

Our strategic pillars are Trust, Innovation, Impact and Capability. Under these pillars we aim to:

• Strengthen Australians’ trust in .au and grow Australians’ engagement in the digital economy and society
• Enhance innovation to improve the utility of .au and support organisational productivity
• Develop new internet governance and domain name system (DNS) professionals and support under-served communities to engage online
• Grow our capability to meet the challenges of our dynamic environment.

We’ve set Key Results for each pillar and identified projects that will help us achieve those results. Each year we’ll develop an internal operating plan where we refine the projects for the upcoming year to help us meet our Objectives and Key Results. I look forward to finalising our 2025-26 operating plan with auDA’s Executive and Leadership Teams in coming weeks and setting ourselves up to successfully deliver our Strategy.

We’re in the final stages of selecting the Independent Chair and Panel Members for the Policy Advisory Panel, which will review of the .au Licensing Rules.

Thanks to those who applied for these roles. Interest from a broad range individuals with different backgrounds and experiences puts the Panel in good stead to review and improve the Licensing Rules to continue to meet the needs and expectations of Australian internet users.

The Panel will conduct community consultation as part of the review later this year. We’ll share opportunities to get involved on our website, social media accounts and in our .au member newsletter.

The value of – and need for – global collaboration between all stakeholders was a key theme at this year’s global Internet Governance Forum in June. We’re advocates for the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance and we continue our work with the Technical Community Coalition for Multistakeholderism (TCCM) to progress our aim to strengthen the multi-stakeholder model and avoid a shift to a government-led model. You can keep track of this work via the TCCM website.

I was pleased to attend the Pacific Internet Governance Forum and the second Pacific ccTLD Forum in Samoa in July. We collaborated with our peers in the Pacific to host the Pacific ccTLD Forum. The forum provides a dedicated space for Pacific country code managers to share insights and work towards shared solutions for common challenges, such as DNS resilience and fighting DNS abuse (phishing and malware). I look forward to continuing to support technical and policy capacity building in the Pacific to build resilience, an area included in our new Strategy.

At the local level, auDA is again supporting the Australian Internet Governance Forum (auIGF), taking place on 23-24 September online and in Adelaide. The auIGF is a key channel to strengthen the Australian internet community and our contributions to regional and global forums. Registrations to attend are now open.

In coming weeks, the auDA team is looking forward to exhibiting at the Developing North Australia conference and Brisbane Start Your Own Business Expo to help small businesses get the most out of .au. We’re also looking forward to the release of the latest iteration of our Digital Lives of Australians research series, now in its fifth year. I know from discussions with stakeholders that the Digital Lives research is an invaluable resource for industry and policy professionals seeking to improve the digital lives of Australians. I hope you find this year’s research just as valuable.

Finally, earlier this week we announced Deakin University and Monash University as the inaugural recipients of auDA Research and Development (R&D) Program funding. Combined, auDA will provide $2.5 million over the next three years (2025-2028) for their projects, which seek to support a secure transition to a quantum-safe DNS (Deakin) and enhance digital inclusion by helping vulnerable Australians' combat and recover from scams (Monash). Innovative R&D projects like these are essential to combatting key online challenges.

The next round of our Community Grant Program opens on 1 August 2025 and closes on 1 September 2025.

The best way to stay informed on these programs and all auDA news and insights is to join as a .au member. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to consider joining today.