auDA Reaches Out To Bushfire Affected Registrants and Communities

auDA announced this week 2 initiatives in response to the bushfire infernos ravaging Australia. The first is allowing registrants an extra 2 months to renew existing .au domain names and the second is A$1 from every new registration in February is to go to a charity helping those impacted by the bushfires.

The Australian ccTLD regulatory and policy body’s temporary Major Disaster Policy came into effect today (22 January) and gives bushfire-affected .au registrants:

  • an extra two months to renew their eligible .au domain names,
  • two months to respond to .au domain complaints.

The policy aims to help businesses, associations and individuals to focus on dealing with the immediate impacts of the bushfire disaster without needing to worry about managing their .au domain names.

In their announcement, auDA note that due to the need for a
quick implementation, they were not able to conduct the usual public
consultation phase of the policy development process. However, they consulted
with the Department of Communications and the Arts, the registry operator and
auDA-accredited registrars to ensure the policy is both feasible and effective.

More information about the policy can be found here: Major Disaster Policy FAQ

Also, to assist with the bushfire recovery efforts, auDA will be donating A$1 (~US$0.68) from every .au domain name created in February 2020 to the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal (FRRR).

The donation will be made to the FRRR’s Disaster and
Resilience and Recovery Fund which helps communities around Australia recover
from disasters like the bushfires and also helps rural communities better
prepare for disaster events.

It is expected that around 40,000 .au domain names will be
created in February 2020, and auDA will publicly report the volumes in its
normal monthly registry reports.

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