The Special Minister of State, Senator Eric Abetz, said the move to a commercial domain name registrar would improve the efficiency of government domain operations, giving agencies access to better services and support.
"We want to ensure that the gov.au domain can keep up with the growth in information and services provided online by governments," he said.
"The Australian government is not handing over control of this important domain, rather we are looking for a suitably qualified organisation to handle the day-to-day operations, allowing government to focus on strategic development of the domain".
The request for tender is seeking an organisation with appropriate domain name industry accreditation to provide online registration services and stakeholders' support across all government jurisdictions.
