From the CEO’s Desk

First of all I must extend a huge thank you to all the members who took the time and effort to read through all the papers and material associated with our proposal to convert to a company limited by guarantee. We’ve gone through quite a process to consult, check and review mountains of paperwork to ensure that we have a solid basis for the transition and a constitution that can serve us well into the future. Now that we’ve been through this process, we’re keen to put the new constitution to members for approval and the Special General Meeting to set the mechanics of transition in motion has been formally called. I hope to see you there on the Wednesday 28 July.

This has also been quite the month for internet regulation. Luckily, we held our From Encryption to Take Downs: Internet Regulation Update earlier this month to get us all fired up! The ACCC has recently started a review of the NBN Standard Access Undertaking, and we have been invited to participate. This is meant to be a short circuit to improve the regulatory environment and bring all the fibre-to-the-node (also known as MTM) technologies under the same regulation as the original fibre-to-the-premises. NBN Co has proposed a number of regulated pricing changes, none of which – sadly – guarantee a net price decrease. We will be seeking more member input as the process evolves. Please feel free tell me what you think!

We’ve also started participating in the code development for the newly passed Online Safety Bill. This bill requires a range of processes to ensure certain offensive content is promptly removed, but there are a range of definitional problems and potential process proliferation, not to mention the possibility of duplicating all the existing complaints and other take down procedures. There’s also talk of having to have a string of codes for each part of the internet. Again, if members have thoughts on how to make this a practical, useful system, please get in touch.

The team in NSW also started settling into our new office in North Sydney. Of course, the latest Covid outbreak has us working at home again, but we’re thoroughly enjoying sharing the space and the ease of problem solving when everyone’s in the same room! Members should come by if they’re ever in North Sydney. We are hoping to schedule an office warming as soon as we can, too.

All the best,

Narelle Clark