I still recommend everyone joins Auda as it is good to have more people involved.
Auda membership should be included free when you register any Australian name extension .edu, .gov.au, .com.au, .id.au, .net.au etc to invite more input from the 3 million+ registrants. And there is no need for members to be sent Auda branded hats etc...This could be cut among other things to save costs and reduce domain name fees.