Activity report Q3 2025–26

100% availability DNS. 

99.9% availability registry services (excluding scheduled maintenance).

In Q3, following feedback from the .nz Advisory Committee (15 October 2025), we updated the Issues paper to be used to engage key stakeholders on the development of an operational strategy to DNS abuse use in .nz.  

During December, we undertook engagements using the Issues paper and met with the Registrar Advisory Group, members of the Anti-Scam Alliance, key Government stakeholders, threat feed providers, industry experts and the .iwi.nz moderator.

Feedback from the 2025 .nz Rules consultation (which ran from 1 September to 1 October) was incorporated into the proposed version 3.2 of the .nz Rules. After consideration of proposed version 3.2 at the 15 October 2025 .nz Advisory Committee meeting, the final form of .nz Rules was submitted to the InternetNZ Board meeting on 5 December. 

The Board approved adoption of version 3.2 of the .nz Rules and specified that the new Rules will come into force on 17 March 2026.

TCCM was a welcome voice during the WSIS+20 discussion and negotiations and was given equal time and influence as ICANN itself. InternetNZ is a recognised founder and active part of the secretariat. The campaign run by TCCM is instrumental in the outcome of preserving multistakeholderism in the WSIS agreement and in re-energising the international IGF. TCCM will continue into this second phase of its existence and in this quarter has published a draft new work programme that InternetNZ supports.

This quarter, NetTalks was successfully piloted in Christchurch (Ōtautahi) on 31 October 2025. The event achieved high satisfaction and strong local engagement, demonstrating the viability of the new format. This successful pilot supports the planned delivery of two NetTalks events in 2026.

InternetNZ Group supports the delivery of Māori-led Internet governance event, Kauwaka te Ipurangi 2025.

Facilitate Māori and rangatahi Māori participation in Internet Governance opportunities.

The Kauwaka event was held on 13th and 14th May and reported on in Q1.

The Ka Awatea initiative was achieved and reported on during Q2 and Q3.

The 2024-2026 Product Strategy defined success as sales, infrastructure stability and innovation. 

Sales — projected revenue remains on target, driven primarily by stable .nz registrations and renewals. Revenue from diversified sources, such as providing services to other TLDs is also set to meet projected revenue targets. 

Infrastructure stability — in this quarter, the product infrastructure has continued to meet or exceed the target availability levels of 99.9% (registry) and 100% (DNS). 

Innovation — in this quarter, work began on formalising how product innovation at InternetNZ is undertaken. This work includes the development of an innovation framework and how the innovation pipeline is managed. 

*Domains Under Management

Develop a new 2026+ product strategy that aligns with the 2026–2031 InternetNZ Group Strategy

This work is now complete and is integral to the 2026-31 InternetNZ Group Strategy.

We develop for InternetNZ Group: A shared Te Tiriti Centring vision.

Below is a section from the InternetNZ Group Strategy that summarises how this strategy will give Effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi

InternetNZ’s approach to giving practical effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is to weave our responses into the InternetNZ Group strategy. This ensures we take a cross-organisation approach, and it is explicitly woven into our annual planning processes.  

For example, key elements of our approach to giving practical effect would be to: 

• continue to fund kaupapa Māori entities or individuals through our Community Fund

• grow the cultural capability of everyone in the organisation so that in five years, we have a Te Tiriti intelligent culture 

• gather the perspectives of the Māori Internet community on key Internet governance and share their views in global forums

• support the Māori community in their aspirations for national and international engagement with Internet governance 

• ensure Māori community engagement on our .nz Rules

• tikanga-based dispute resolution services are offered

• gather more explicit information on Māori businesses' experiences of .nz domain names.

In this way, our five-year strategy reflects an integrated approach that continues to have specific annual initiatives directly focused on outcomes for Māori and other underserved communities in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Internet community.

InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa strengthened its relationship with Kiwa Digital to not only harness this resource and plan future usability but to effectively empower InternetNZ’s capability and upload and integrate content. Ngā Uara has now been successfully loaded onto the app and is available to app users.

During Q3, we made significant progress on the 2026-31 strategy through workshops and online collaboration with staff, Board and members, leading to the development of a Draft Strategy 2026-31. 

As the Strategy process has unfolded, we have developed and integrated key documents: 

• The InternetNZ Constitution
• Draft Strategy 2026/31
• Te Korowai ō Ipurangi Aotearoa
• Ngā Uara | Our Values

Q3 marked a major end-of-calendar-year milestone for member events, including;

• The Auckland End of Year Celebration: well attended by members of InternetNZ, compared to previous years, and highlighted two Auckland-based projects funded by InternetNZ.

• InternetNZ’s 30th Celebration: at Parliament, our highest attended event of recent years, with over 120 attendees.

Both events received positive feedback from members who attended.

We remain on track to meet our target of 40% of annual funding going to Māori partners and/or entities. Full reporting on this measure, including examples of outcomes from funding, will be presented in the annual report.

As at the end of February, DNC will have funded five mediations.

DNC has not received any requests to fund cultural or accessibility support.