SSC launches government Registrar

As of October 3, all registrations in the .govt.nz namespace have been made through the new Government Registrar website. The Registrar stores all .govt.nz domain names and is managed by the State Services Commission (SSC) on behalf of the Crown. The moderation of this namespace is still being undertaken by the SSC and the Association of Local Government Information Managers (ALGIM).

There are just over 800 .govt.nz domains registered in New Zealand. All but 189 of them have been transferred across to the government registrar. These last names will be brought across in 2 tranches using bulk transfers with the help of the Office of the Domain Name Commissioner.

All new .govt.nz domain names will reside on the New Zealand Government Registrar. The namespace is moderated by SSC and ALGIM to ensure the authoritativeness of government websites and email addresses, and to enable users to easily find their way through the intricacies of government organizations.

This practice gives New Zealanders confidence in their communications with government entities. The Government views the .govt.nz domain as a Crown asset, managed by the individual government organisations (including territorial and regional local authorities), and recognizes the importance of protecting and developing New Zealander’s trust in government.

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).

For more information, see www.e.govt.nz/policies/moderation/