Page 8 - Australaasian Paint & Panel Jan-Feb 2022

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NEWS
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PAINT&PANEL JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
10 RIGHT TO REPAIR ON TRACK • 12 OLA REPAIR NETWORK • 18 HISTORIC COURT RULING
Mark Czvitkovits will chair the committee for the next 12 months.
AFCA REPORT
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL COM-
plaints Authority (AFCA) has welcomed the Independent Review’s report into its financial dispute resolution service. AFCA agrees in principle with the re- port’s 14 recommendations.
The report said AFCA is performing well in a difficult operating environ- ment and a changing regulatory land- scape. The report “did not find evi- dence to support a view that there are systemic issues with the independence of AFCA’s operations.”
In its first two years, AFCA received more than 152,000 complaints. The av- erage time to resolve those complaints was 74 days.
VACC INSIGHTS
VACC offered insights into the recom- mendations and feels that AFCA hasn't addressed systemic issues.
Recommendation 2: The Review finds that AFCA needs to exercise caution in the application of its fairness jurisdic- tion. Recommendation 2 considers that in exercising its fairness jurisdiction when making decisions, AFCA should have primary regard to the four factors identified in its rules – legal principles, industry codes, good industry practice and previous determinations.
Regarding the MVIRI Code VACC said it should become law in Victoria and across the country. VACC's report states: “The current
voluntary national code (except for it be- ing mandated in NSW) is not working, has limitations, and re- quires changes to im- prove its effectiveness. Regrettably, insurers have increasingly dis- missed the principles outlined in the MVIRI Code and instead have
chosen, at times, to dispute repair esti- mation costs, unfairly cash settle cus- tomers, and delay vehicle assessments, or move vehicles away from one re- pairer to another, even when the cus- tomer has ‘choice of repairer’ in their insurance policy.”
Recommendation 12 and Recommen- dation 13 states: “Where a systemic is- sue has been referred to ASIC or anoth- er regulator, AFCA should cease its investigation of the systemic issue. ASIC and other regulators should ad-
vise AFCA of the out- comes of the referrals they receive. However, AFCA should continue to resolve any relevant individual complaints.”
As AFCA has a huge amount of data on re- curring issues the VACC feels it should publish a greater level of detail on the types of issues iden- tified as systemic is-
AFCA Chief Ombudsman David Locke
NEW CAC COUNCIL
HE INSURANCE COUNCIL OF
Australia (ICA) and the Motor Trades Association of Austral- ia (MTAA) have announced changes to the Motor Vehicle Insur- ance and Repair Industry (MVIRI) Code
Administration Committee (CAC).
The ICA has advised the resignation of Troy Johns, while MTAA has confirmed the resignations of John Guest, Richard Dudley, and Brian Cowan from the CAC. The ICA and MTAA thanked the repre- sentatives for their contribution and ser- vice to the automotive sector, insurance and the collision repair industries and
welcomed new appointments.
The ICA confirmed the National Motor
Insurance Committee’s recent decision to appoint George Manos of Insurance Aus- tralia Group (IAG) to the CAC. Manos is manager of industry risk and governance within IAG’s Insurance Supply Chain di-
vision and has extensive experience in the automotive insurer industry.
MTAA advised the endorsed appoint- ments of Mark Czvitkovits, Kathy Zdravevski, and Kaes Cillessen as MTAA CAC representatives.
Mark Czvitkovits is well known to the motor vehicle insurance and collision repair industry as a former collision re- pairer, business owner, and CEO of I- CAR Australia. Czvitkovits has also been elected CAC Chair for the next 12 months.
Kathy Zdravevski is a senior manager with MTAA Member, the Victorian Auto- motive Chamber of Commerce (VACC). Zdravevski brings significant insurance and collision repair industry, policy, regu- lation, and legal experience gathered in senior positions in the insurance industry.
The final MTAA representative is indus- try and government engagement manager,
from MTAA Member the MTA SA/NT. Cillessen specialises in leading policy and law reform advocacy engagements in com- plex and contested policy environments.
The CAC looks forward to continuing various work to ensure the Code assists both repairers and insurers in achieving a balance of fairness in their dealings with each other.