member of the panel (and congratulations by the way), however may I ask...
  who determines the makeup of this panel?... do you have a solicitor on the
  panel?... who represents all the other industries in Australia (apart from
  IT)?... who is the marketing consultant promoting the .au namespace?... do
  you have a business plan identifying the mechanisms for community members
  and businesses to contest decisions, without necessitating solicitors and a
  court appearance? The later is a normal mechanism in a NFP organisation (and
  usually considered essential if for no other reason than to protect the
  members). Perhaps if these could be outlined, much of the need for this
  "debate" would be negated, because people (including dummies like me) would
  know where to turn when we view a decision as either inappropriate or
  unjust.
  

You seem to mistake "the panel" for a permanent body of auDA. the panel
is a body set up for a defined purpose: to consider *changes* to be
recommended to auDA (the board) to adopt or not as they see fit. Its
trying to decide what it should recommend auDA do. Not to decide what *it*
will do.

It is not a permanent appelate structure. It is not a determining body

Its consultative, and recommends. thats it. auDA is the body you should be
asking some of these hypothetical questions to.

And yes, both panels, names and competition have lawyers, and
representatives of SMEs and other general business sectors on its membership.

Competition has people from the ACCC and ABA as well.

The panel memberships are posted on the auDA website.

Maybe now you can understand why I keep harping on: If you don't make
formal input to this panel, then you won't get your views heard in 
any but an informal sense.

cheers
			-George

--
George Michaelson         |  DSTC Pty Ltd
Email: ggm§dstc.edu.au    |  University of Qld 4072
Phone: +61 7 3365 4310    |  Australia
  Fax: +61 7 3365 4311    |  http://www.dstc.edu.au