Quoting Support on Friday December 14, 2001:
| Ok so what you have just said in simple basic terms in that!
| 
| MelbourneIT/Melb Uni! and AUNIC are all going to be combined into one and be
| managed by One Company!  AusRegistry(etc)

No.. I think Bruce's explanation while correct is a bit more detailed 
that it needs to be. In simple terms, the current and future setup of
.com.au would be:

   Current                         New
   ====================            ==================================
   Delegant:  auDA                 Delegant:  auDA
   Registry:  AUNIC                Registry:  AusRegistry
   Registrar: Melbourne IT         Registrar: Lots (i.e. competitive)

As you don't seem too familiar with all this terminology you may wish
to read through the auDA website, particularly the competition panel
reports.

| To follow the current policy of the current .com .org .net would have been a
| better solution! Have the DB under strict control of auDA or similar and
| then sales and etc by MANY unrelated 3rd parties!

That is what is happening.. The monopoly is only at the registry level,
which is not the level customers go to. Customers go to registrars. The
registry needs to be a monopoly as it is what keeps the official list of
which domains are registered.

kim