auIGF 2015 (Australian Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The fourth auIGF met at the Park Hyatt, Melbourne, on 6–7 October 2015, under the theme 'How the Internet is transforming Australian society' — a deliberate widening from governance to society.
2. Online harassment and women in tech, indigenous digital inclusion, the freshly enforced data retention law and the debut of the new Children's eSafety Commissioner filled the agenda; MP Terri Butler used the forum to flag a bill criminalising 'revenge porn'.
3. It marked a national IGF pivoting from 'who runs the Internet' to 'what the Internet does to us' — putting gender and abuse squarely on the IGF agenda years before it was standard.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on auIGF 2015 (Australian Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Gender and the Internet — Harassment and Criminalising 'Revenge Porn'

Sessions: Plenary 'Gender and the Internet' (with Tracey Spicer, Julie Inman-Grant and others)

"The internet, like other forms and means of human interaction, is susceptible to gendered abuse. It's also a great way of distributing information broadly and quickly. This does not make the internet inherently good or inherently bad. But it does give rise to new opportunities, and new challenges."
— Terri Butler MP [2][5]

• Journalist Tracey Spicer and Twitter's public policy director for Australia and SE Asia, Julie Inman-Grant — later Australia's eSafety Commissioner — dissected online harassment and the shortage of women in tech [2][5]
• Butler advocated online participation for 'people of all genders' and gave notice of a private member's bill criminalising revenge porn; NSW, South Australia and Victoria later toughened their laws [2][5]

2. Internet and the Law — Auditing the New Data Retention Regime

Sessions: Plenary 'Internet and the law' (with Ben Grubb and others)

• With the metadata retention law passed in March 2015 and full enforcement due on 13 October, the forum billed it as 'the most hotly-debated topic in the past 12 months' [2][1]
• Journalist Ben Grubb brought his own fight to obtain his personal metadata from his telco, probing what is stored and what citizens may see [2][1]
• The same scheme debated as a proposal at auIGF 2012 was now examined as reality — a through-line across four years of the forum [2][1]

3. The Children's eSafety Commissioner Debuts — A First-Quarter Report

Sessions: Workshop 'Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner: Open for business — a first quarter report' (6 October)

"Our involvement in this year's auIGF provides a valuable platform to update key industry stakeholders about our new Office, our cyberbullying complaint handling processes and our approach toward education and changing online behaviour in the long-term."
— Alastair MacGibbon (Children's eSafety Commissioner) [3]

• One of the first public outings for the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner, created in July 2015 — the world's first dedicated online-safety regulator reporting on its opening quarter [3]
• auDA CEO Chris Disspain pledged to keep children's online safety 'front of mind each year', continuing a theme running since 2013 [3]
• The office later broadened into the eSafety Commissioner for all Australians, the centrepiece of Australia's online safety regime [3]

4. Frontiers of Inclusion — Indigenous Communities and the Third Sector

Sessions: Plenaries 'Internet and indigenous communities' and 'Internet, innovation and the third sector'

• Michael Rome of NCIE – Indigenous Digital Excellence led a panel on how closing the connectivity gap can drive social, economic and cultural development in indigenous communities [2][1]
• Associate Professor Jane Burns (Young and Well CRC) and Hello Sunday Morning's Chris Raine explored using the Internet for those in greatest need [2][1]
• From 2015 the forum formally acknowledged the Wurundjeri Traditional Owners of the land — inclusion practised, not just discussed [2][1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What was new about this edition?

A. The pivot from 'who governs the Internet' to 'what the Internet is doing to society'. Harassment, indigenous connectivity and child safety took centre stage — widening what a national IGF is for.

Q. What made the biggest waves?

A. Criminalising revenge porn. MP Terri Butler used the forum to give notice of a private member's bill, and tougher state laws followed — a national IGF discussion previewing actual legislation.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Australia's Children's eSafety Commissioner, which debuted publicly here, became the template for dedicated online-safety regulators now debated worldwide — from the UK's Online Safety Act to platform rules in Japan.

What Is Australia IGF? (for first-time readers)

Australia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. Australian Internet Governance Forum — DiploFoundation (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. The Internet and its influence on Australian society（2015年プログラム発表, 2015-05-18） — auIGF / auDA（Wayback Machineアーカイブ） (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. New Children's eSafety Commissioner, Alastair MacGibbon joins as speaker at this year's auIGF（2015-07-27） — auIGF / auDA（Wayback Machineアーカイブ） (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. About the Australian Internet Governance Forum（2015年版公式サイト） — auIGF / auDA（Wayback Machineアーカイブ） (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. Australia: Doing the right thing — Internet governance country report — GISWatch / APC (accessed 2026-07-11)

Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.

Related links

• IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
• Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
• Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/

Revision History

Rev. 1 — published 20 June 2015, 15:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 16 July 2026, 20:09 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))

— 中澤祐樹