The Australian National Licensing Proposal (NLP) grew out of a recommendation of a 2003 Senate Inquiry into the Role of Libraries in the Online Environment to establish national licensing of selected online information resources. After the Federal Government declined to provide any additional funding to support the recommendation, in 2004, the National Library of Australia (given the responsibility by the Senate Inquiry of developing the recommendation) has moved ahead with developing the proposal. using its existing resources.
The first steps were to establish a community base representing the Australian library environment. The National Licensing Reference Group was established at the 2nd National Licensing Forum in 2005, to shepherd the development of the Australian National Licensing Proposal. The Reference Group is made up of representatives from library consortia and associations across Australia. The current convenor of the Group is Julie Rae from the Gulliver consortium in Victoria. The NLP Reference Group reported back to the 3rd National Licensing Forum on 3 July 2006.
Six major library sectors have been identified: academic, public, school, TAFE, special and Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL). The National Licensing Reference Group established four sub-committees to examine governance, products, pricing, and communications.