Moderation and Registration

Scope of this policy

The scope of this policy is the .govt 2nd level domain namespace of the New Zealand Internet sector (or .nz).

The New Zealand Internet Sector

The New Zealand Internet sector has 11 second-level domains or namespaces (2LD's). Four of these (.govt, .mil, .cri and .iwi) have strict requirements for registering 3LDs, or third Level Domain names (e.g. www.ssc.govt.nz or www.wcc.govt.nz). These are called "moderated domains".

The New Zealand Government recognises the nature of delegated domain spaces, as per RFC 1591 (www.iana.org), and the policy of InternetNZ and others that domain names are licensed for limited periods rather than sold outright (http://www.internetnz.org.nz/). The Government views the .govt.nz domain names as held and managed by the Crown, via individual government organisations (including territorial and regional local authorities).

What is moderation and registration?

In the context of the naming of Internet web sites used by New Zealand Public Sector organisations, moderation is the process of assessing the suitability of an internet web site name (hereafter "name"), and determining whether the proposed use is appropriate.

Moderation is a quality management system designed to achieve valid, fair and consistent assessment of requests for names. Moderation of .govt.nz is the joint responsibility of the State Services Commission (SSC) and the Association of Local Government Information Managers (ALGIM).

Registration is the process by which the licence to use a name is recorded and passed to New Zealand Registry Services (NZRS). A registration gives the organisation the exclusive right to use of the name for 12 months and the right to renew that registration in future years.

Why .govt.nz is moderated

The namespace is moderated to preserve the authoritativeness of Government websites and email addresses and enable users to easily find their way through the intricacies of Government organisations and to give citizens confidence in communications to and from Government entities.

Standard Setting Body for .govt.nz 2nd level domain

The SSC and ALGIM, working in partnership are responsible for developing, writing and reviewing the policies and procedures that government the .govt.nz namespace. These bodies are also responsible for moderating the namespace.

Who may apply for a .govt.nz domain name?

The .govt.nz namespace is reserved for statutory entities and Government programmes. It includes the Public Service, Crown Entities, local authorities and a variety of other bodies with statutory responsibilities. This does not include State Owned Enterprises and may not include some Local Authority Trading Enterprises (LATEs). Each decision is arrived at case by case, and no decision should be interpreted as a precedent. Generally speaking, if an organisation has a question about their potential eligibility, they should contact moderator@ssc.govt.nz for confirmation.

Central Government

Central Government, for the purposes of this policy generally refers to departments and Crown entities, as defined by the Public Finance Act 1989, Parliamentary agencies and some other organisations with statutory responsibilities. There are some organisations that fall within these criteria but already have separate domains - Crown Research Institutes (*.cri.nz) and Tertiary Education Institutes (*.ac.nz).

Local Government

Local authorities are those organisations, and their subsidiaries, defined by the Local Government Act 2002, Schedule 2.