Senator LUNDY —I would like to turn first to the Broadband Strategy, if you could summarise what NOIE's role is in coordination of the demand aggregation brokers, the coordinated communications infrastructure fund and the National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group.

Dr Badger —Essentially we are responsible for the implementation of those three activities. As you know, NOIE played a major role in the work of the Broadband Advisory Group and we have continued to work with the department on the government's activities which form a series of responses to the types of issues that were raised in those reports. We have worked on the National Broadband Strategy in conjunction with the states and will continue to take that forward with the National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group. As I said, we are responsible for the design and implementation of those programs you mentioned: the CCIF and the demand aggregation brokers program.

Senator LUNDY —What is it envisaged that the CCIF will be spent on?

Dr Badger —There is a discussion paper out at the moment which we can give you access to if you do not already have it.

Senator LUNDY —Is it on the web site?

Dr Badger —Yes.

Senator LUNDY —Just tell me in 10 words or less what you are going to spend the money on.

Ms Lansdown —The CCIF program is modelled on the NCF program which we found, in consultations with the Broadband Advisory Group, was very highly regarded amongst the states and territories. We expect that the eligible expenditure under the CCIF program will be very similar to the eligible expenditure under the NCF.

Senator LUNDY —How much funding was in the NCF?

Ms Lansdown —Around $50 million.

Senator LUNDY —The CCIF is $23.7 million?

Ms Lansdown —Yes.

Senator LUNDY —Can you tell me whether the ITOL program is funded through a special account or through annual allocation?

Dr Badger —The ITOL program is an annual appropriation.

Senator LUNDY —Can you tell me what the status of the ITOL funding is and how long that program has to run?

Mr Besgrove —I believe the program has two more years to run. It is funded to a total of $2.5 million per annum.

Senator LUNDY —What is the conclusion date; June 2005 or 2004?

Mr Besgrove —It is 2005-2006, Senator.

Senator LUNDY —June 2006?

Mr Besgrove —That is correct. It was funded under the Backing Australia's Ability program for an additional four years.

Senator LUNDY —Which is why it has that extra year. Is there a review going on about the future of that funding?

Mr Besgrove —There have been several reviews of the ITOL program. Because it is one of the Backing Australia's Ability programs, there is a review process under way at the moment.

Senator LUNDY —When will that review be concluded?

Mr Besgrove —I believe that is part of the general review process which is being undertaken for all of the elements of Backing Australia's Ability.

Senator LUNDY —Are you involved in that directly or are you just the implementer of the program?

Mr Besgrove —We have some involvement in the development of the Backing Australia's Ability to process, particularly in relation to ITOL.

Senator LUNDY —Any other things?

Mr Besgrove —NOIE is sometimes asked for input into questions that arise that are considered by DCITA. As we have indicated in previous estimates, we work very closely with DCITA on a range of innovation issues.

Senator LUNDY —Can you tell me whether NOIE is familiar with the Emerging markets report prepared by the ACCC and whether NOIE is concerned, in relation to broadband, that according to that report competition is not as strong as it could be and is in fact going backwards in the area of emerging markets. Do you concur with the ACCC's findings?

Dr Badger —I do not know the detail of the ACCC report.

Senator LUNDY —Why not? It is about broadband competition.

Dr Badger —The government has made it clear, in a series of statements about broadband, that it considers the roll-out of broadband to be a high priority and that is the work of the National Broadband Strategy. The program responses we have discussed already are part of the government's response to that. The focus of the government's response to broadband in the spending programs has been to provide funds for expenditure predominantly in regional and remote areas of Australia.

Senator LUNDY —Does NOIE consider issues relating to market structure, like those raised in the Emerging markets report, as being policy considerations NOIE needs to consider in your involvement in the National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group?

Dr Badger —Our objective is to ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, broadband take-up is accelerated throughout Australia. There are a number of considerations—

Senator LUNDY —So the answer to my question is `No'?

Dr Badger —No, the answer to your question is that part of the consideration is the extent of competition in various areas of Australia. The extent to which the issue of competition is dominant in any part of Australia is very much one in the eye of the beholder.

Senator LUNDY —Thanks. I have one more question. Can NOIE confirm reports in the Canberra Times on 27 October that at 10 a.m. on 2 August 3,378 government Internet domains became deregistered and hence unavailable to the Internet community? If so, what happened, and is it NOIE's fault?

Dr Badger —It is certainly true that the domain jurisdictions that you refer to were down. As soon as we were alerted to the fact, action was taken to get them up again. Mr Grant might like to explain in a little more detail the somewhat complex story involved.

Senator LUNDY —It has to be really quick. But while you are answering that question I would like to know how long they were deregistered and why it came to be so.

Mr Grant —On 2 August at 10 a.m. 3,378 domain names did become unreachable. NOIE took immediate action when it became aware of the event. What happened is that the sites became unavailable as they had reached an expiry date that was applied to gov.au domains which were transferred to AusRegistry in August 2002. NOIE was not aware that any such expiry date had been applied. We immediately responded to the expiry. We had most back on within three hours of initial expiry. We have taken action since then to ensure that this does not recur.

Senator LUNDY —Was edu.au also affected?

Mr Grant —No. It was just gov.au.

Senator LUNDY —What steps have you taken to make sure this does not happen again? How on earth are Australians going to be confident that this government can manage Internet policies when fundamental issues like this occur? This is one thing; the absurd web site debacle last year was another thing. How often do big mistakes have to be made before this government gets the message?

Mr Grant —Senator, first, it was not a huge problem because a lot of information was cached.

Our view is that, in fact, very few people were unable to reach the domains they were looking for. Second, we discovered the problem immediately and contacted AusRegistry immediately. Within three hours we had the domain names back on board in most areas.

Senator LUNDY —How did you find out?

Mr Grant —Through one of our technical people, who reported it to the manager of the domain system.

Senator LUNDY —He just said, `Oh, it's not there any more,' or, `I can't get in,' or something like that.

Mr Grant —I do not know the precise detail, but it was discovered. We have been in contact in AusRegistry to ensure that no further such expiry provisions exist and, if they do, then we are informed well and truly before any expiry would take place. Secondly, because we are a second-level administrator, we have reported to auDA—the .au Domain Administration—about the process and, thirdly, we will continue to monitor what happens. We do not think this will happen again. We have also ensured that our agreement is much better understood by both parties.

Senator LUNDY —I am sure you know the agreement back to front now.

Mr Grant —We knew it back to front before, Senator. This was a transition error which simply did not appear in a way that we could have identified.

Senator LUNDY —Thank you for that explanation. That is all I have. I will place further questions on notice.

CHAIR —Thank you, Senator.

[9.16 p.m.]