Application for a new 2LD - .parliament.nz submission From: David Farrar Date: 4 May 2005 This is a personal submission on the application for parliament.nz to be created as a 2LD. The author worked in Parliament for eight years and also is very conversant with .nz policies. The details of proposed 3LDs under parliament.nz is of interest, and will be commented on later. But the key aspect to this application is whether parliament.nz should be created or parliament.govt.nz is sufficient. Parliamentary party sub-domains, as proposed, could of course be allocated using the current domain, such as nzfirst.parliament.govt.nz for example. I submit that Parliament as an institution is distinctly separate to the Government of New Zealand, and if Parliament expresses a desire to not be included under govt.nz, this should be respected. In theory the Government is in fact answerable to Parliament. Parliament is not part of Government. I draw attention to Section 6(2) Of The Parliamentary Service Act 2000 which states "The Parliamentary Service is not an instrument of the executive government". It may seem pedantic to argue that Parliament is not part of Government, but in fact this reflects hundreds of years of important constitutional history. One also has a precedent created by the existence of cri.nz and mil.nz which both have stronger claims to be seen as part of Government, than Parliament. I also draw attention to the existence of parliament.uk as a 2LD in the United Kingdom. In making a decision on the application, NZOC should compare the application to the criteria listed in the policy. I comment on each in turn: - Represents an identifiable, significant community of interest; where 'significant' can mean either quantitatively or qualitatively and the community of interest can be defined in a clear written statement Parliament is a very identifiable and significant community of interest. It comprises half a dozen agencies, seven parliamentary parties and 120 MPs, plus the Queen. It is extremely well defined. - Represents an on-going and long-lived community of interest It is highly unlikely there will not be a Parliament in the foreseeable future. - Does not conflict with, duplicate or cause confusion about, any existing 2LD, and is a useful addition to the current DNS hierarchy The issue of whether it conflicts with govt.nz has been dealt with above. I submit it does not conflict with or duplicate govt.nz as Parliament is a very separate entity. Several existing 2LDs have a greater duplication than parliament.nz would. - Uses a name to represent the domain that is a obvious derivative of a word that properly describes the community of interest or a complete word Parliament is a complete word. - Does not bring the .nz domain name space into disrepute The proposed 2ld does not bring the .nz space into disrepute. InternetNZ has adopted a relatively liberal policy with regard to 2LDs, where those meeting the criteria should be created unless there are strong reasons not to do so. I submit the application very clearly meets all the criteria and there are no grounds on which to reject it. I will also comment briefly on the proposed moderation policy. While strictly an issue for the community of interest, ie Parliament, I would add my support for the proposal to allow sub- domains for parliamentary parties such as labour.parliament.nz because at present political party sites are often funded by both the party and the taxpayer, and a clear separation is beneficial. So for example greens.org.nz would be funded entirely by the Green Party while green.parliament.nz could be funded by the Green Caucus out of their bulk funding. I suggest that Parliamentary Service also consider the desirability of allowing sub-domains for each MP, such as anderton.parliament.nz for example. This would allow each MP to more clearly communicate their *parliamentary* activities as distinct from their political activities. The US has allowed individual Senators to register under senate.gov as an overseas example. In summary I submit Parliament is not part of the Government, hence parliament.nz is more appropriate than parliament.govt.nz and that the application meets all the criteria laid out in the InternetNZ policy for an application to succeed.