.nz policy review archive

Part of InternetNZ's role as the home and guardian for the .nz domain is to set the policies for the registration and use of a .nz domain.

Our policies set out the rules and procedures for anyone owning a .nz domain name. They include:

  • the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the .nz domain
  • the procedures they need to follow
  • how we manage any disputes about .nz domain names.
  • .nz policy review timeline

On this page, you can learn about the recent changes to the .nz policies and about the first principles .nz policies review proces that took place between  2019 and 2022.

Quick links: 

.nz Rules review: next steps

Over the next few months, we will continue our work on the .nz Rules. 

Please contact the .nz Rules review team via email dotnzreview@internetnz.net.nz if you have any questions.

.nz Rules review: current state

Minor amendments were again made in August 2024 and will come into effect on 1 November 2024.

Minor amendments have been made since and came into effect on 31 March 2023.

.nz Rules review: 2024

There was a consultation on minor amendments that closed in June 2024. The changes that were consulted on are highlighted in these draft rules, summarised here.

One submission was received. Amendments were agreed to at the 16 August 2024 Council meeting. Final changes made are summarised here.

.nz Rules review: 2019-2022 

Summary

In 2019-2020 a panel representing New Zealanders made recommendations on what changes InternetNZ should make to the .nz policies. These recommendations were divided into three tranches, and tranche one recommendations have been implemented in the .nz Rules. The recommendations in the other two tranches will be reviewed and implemented accordingly.

The tranche one recommendations include a rewrite of the .nz policies, making them simpler and easier to navigate. The different sets of principles and policies in the five existing policy documents have been combined into one document called “.nz Rules”.  The .nz Rules will provide a more coherent policy framework that is linked in a user-friendly way.

.nz policies review timeline

In 2019 InternetNZ began a comprehensive review of .nz policies to make sure they’re modern, robust, safe and world-class.

InternetNZ appointed the .nz Advisory Panel to conduct a review, and consult with New Zealanders.

The Advisory Panel consisted of:

  • Sue Chetwin (Chair)
  • Alma Hong
  • Mark Boddington
  • Matt Brown
  • Mark Thomas
  • Tim Johnson
  • Ty Kahu
  • Charlie Gavey
  • Robert Rolls.

The Advisory Panel had conversations with a diverse range of New Zealanders to consider whether the .nz policy framework was still fit-for-purpose. It developed an Issues Report in January 2020 which laid out the issues the Panel found with the current setting for .nz.

After exploring these issues, the panel produced an Options Report which was released for public consultation over July-August 2020. We have a summary of submissions from that consultation.

The .nz Advisory Panel completed its work in September 2020 with a final Recommendations Report on how InternetNZ should move forward from here. 

Following the Recommendations Report, InternetNZ re-wrote the rules and policies to reflect the panel’s thinking. We called for submissions on these draft .nz rules and policies from Friday 19 February to Friday 2 April 2021.  

The InternetNZ Council approved the replacement of the existing set of .nz policy documents with the final tranche one .nz Rules in November 2021. 

In late 2021/early 2022, the tranche two recommendations were reviewed by InternetNZ staff and the .nz Policy Committee and categorised into two categories: 

  • recommendations that are desirable and feasible and that we will implement; and 
  • recommendations that will not be proceeded with. 

The recommendations from the first category were prioritised into three different priority levels based on the significance/impact of the recommendations and/or the resources available to carry out the next steps to implement the recommendation. 

In February 2022, Council noted the tranche two recommendations, and thereafter some work began on implementing some of the priority one tranche two recommendations, including:

  • For the purposes of Recommendation 21, engaging a third party to provide a report around implementing a trusted notifier regime; and
  • Drafting of various clauses to add to the .nz Rules to enable InternetNZ to pave the way for minimum security standards and minimum service/feature sets all Registrars must provide (Recommendations 23 and 39). 

Papers related to the review

 

Submissions on the Options Report 

The consultation on the Options Report was open from 17 July 2020 to 14 August 2020. Below are the submissions we received.

Submissions on draft .nz rules 

The consultation on the draft .nz rules and policies was open from 19 February to 2 April 2021. Below are the submissions we received. 

  • MarkMonitor (PDF)
  • A running document of short submissions received via email (PDF)
    • Justin Cook 
    • Jamie Kahn Genet
    • Craig
    • James Sleeman
    • Adam Warner
    • Chris Muller
    • Rhys Goodwin 
    • Michael Murphy
    • Jack Pivac 
    • Rhys Evans
    • Mike Clements
    • Tristram Cheer 
  • Mega Limited (PDF)
  • Domain Name Commission (PDF)
  • Office of the Privacy Commissioner (PDF)
  • Metaname (PDF)
  • Anonymous submission (PDF)

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