Activity reports Q1 2026–27

InternetNZ continued to play a leadership role in a Technical Community Coalition for Multistakeholderism (TCCM).

In Q1, TCCM is focused on both the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary (ITU-PP) and the Internet Governance Forum — meetings of significance to Internet governance that are scheduled for the end of 2026. 

InternetNZ actively participated in the work of ICANN, including intersessional work as part of the Country Code Names Support Organization (ccNSO) Disaster Recovery study group, the Internet Governance Liaison Committee and the ccNSO TLD-OPS. 

We sent a delegation to ICANN86. 

InternetNZ technical staff participated in side meetings and helped validate beta software for Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) multi-signer automation, supporting relevant Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft standards.

We provide opportunities for people to participate in multi-stakeholder processes (eg, .nz Rules consultation).

The policy development for the 2026–27 .nz Rules work programme began in this quarter. Key work programme items were identified, and initial research was undertaken as part of our WHOIS review.

We engaged with the .nz Advisory Committee and the Registrars Advisory Group on the upcoming .nz Rules work programme.

We support and identify a home for Māori Technical Community engagement in Internet governance.

InternetNZ explored opportunities to support capability-building and engagement in Internet governance amongst Māori communities. This included work we are undertaking towards potentially hosting Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) in 2028. If we do progress with the APrIGF and are successful in our bid, integrating Māori voices nationally and indigenous voices regionally will be a vital component. Taking the time to develop reciprocity in this relationship has been a vital part of this goal.

Also to note, our strategic partner, Te Hapori Matahiko, has created the Indigenous Tech Summit based in Pōneke and will be held in November 2026.

Developing InternetNZ’s five-year financial management plan requires aligning long-term fiscal health with the group's public-good mandate, .nz registry operations, and community impact goals.

During this development stage, we focussed on: 

• Establishing baseline financial models by reviewing historical .nz domain registration volume, renewal rates, and revenue.

• Reviewing risk appetite and financial parameters through the reserve policy and investment risk tolerances.

• Commencing modeling 5-year projections under varied scenarios.

We have completed initial validation of three projects in the innovation pipeline. Key milestones included:

• Validation of a critical path for offering beta access to a new registry feature — Domain Lock. This was communicated to our registrar community in Q1.

• The setup and launch of a cross organisation project to support an applicant of the 2026 round of the ICANN Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program. The innovation was to bring resources together across the organisation in ways that fit the customer need

• Launching a sponsorship partnership with Auckland Football Club. 

The progress made in delivery was promising and learning about our innovation processes continue to inform the next steps.

The focus this year is Registration Abuse, including improvements to data verification processes supported by amended .nz Rules. 

We provided feedback on the government proposal for a legislated safe harbour under the Fair Trading Amendment Bill which will apply where providers are acting on scams and frauds. Our feedback stressed the importance of a trusted notifier network.

The Registrar Advisory Group met with the Domain Name Commission and InternetNZ. Two working groups were established to:

• obtain feedback on processes and good practices for domain name holders and registrar transfers, 
• and provide for input on the WHOIS review.

* 1 interval (4m 50s) is UNKNOWN due to remote network transport issues.

Strategy development began by defining the key external and internal factors we want to prioritise and  exploring the hardware supply chain and cost constraints in the market that will likely persist during the strategy timeframe.

We compiled advice on the direction of the continued use of open source software in the context of potential future critical infrastructure classification and the potential requirements.

We also engaged with vendors to understand likely timeframes for delivery of updates that will require changes to existing infrastructure to support, including new technologies and processes.

Progress on the HSM deployment continued, which saw the deployment and validation of supporting systems that enable the final pipeline.

The project established a secure, self-hosted repository for automated deployment workflows that are cryptographically approved by humans and enforced by automated pipelines. The initial proof-of-concept is now transitioning to this new infrastructure while testing a tool-agnostic containerization approach to improve disaster recovery resilience.

An important part of embedding ngā uara (our values) into everyday practices and processes is integrating them into our systems.   

We have rolled out Staff Performance and Development Plans for 2026–27, which include guidance and training that integrates our ngā uara. 

Additionally, reflection and recognition of ngā uara have been included in our Agile ceremonies, for example, our quarterly planning processes and monthly demo sessions for all staff.

We began this work by reviewing the cultural capability work we have accomplished to date and reflected on what worked well and what resonated with staff. 

This quarter, we planned a programme of organisation-wide cultural capability events for staff. The events will roll out throughout the year