The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and the Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) have announced changes to the representatives of the Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry (MVIRI) Code Administration Committee (CAC).
The ICA and the MTAA have revealed that Troy Johns, John Guest, Richard Dudley, and Brian Cowan resigned from their positions in the CAC and thanked them for their contributions and service to the automotive sector and the insurance and collision repair industries.
Following the previous members’ resignations, the National Motor Insurance Committee has welcomed George Manos, the manager of industry risk and governance at Insurance Australia Group (IAG) supply chain division, to the CAC. He has extensive experience in the automotive insurer industry.
Meanwhile, Mark Czvitkovits, Kathy Zdravevski, and Kaes Cillessen were named MTAA CAC representatives.
Czvitkovits, who was also elected CAC Chair for the next 12 months, is well known in the motor vehicle insurance and collision repair industry as a former collision repairer, business owner, and CEO of I-CAR Australia.
Meanwhile, Zdravevski is a senior manager at MTAA member Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC). She brings to the team significant insurance and collision repair industry, policy, regulation, and legal experience gathered in senior positions in the insurance industry.
The final MTAA representative, Cillessen is an industry and government engagement manager at MTAA member MTA SA/NT. She specialises in leading policy and law reform advocacy engagements in complex and contested policy environments.
In a recent statement, the CAC thanked Code signatories for their patience and understanding regarding the committee and its operations, especially during COVID-19. The committee said it looks forward to continuing various work to ensure the Code assists repairers and insurers in achieving a balance of fairness in their dealings with each other.
The motor vehicle and repair industry took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdowns, forcing organisations, regulators, and governments to adapt to the changing environment.
Aside from the CAC, the South Australian government made changes to deal with the impacts of the pandemic and lockdowns.
In August, Sam Duluk MP, the South Australian member for Waite and former presiding member of the Economic and Finance Committee, introduced the Fair Trading (Motor Vehicle Insurers and Repairer) Amendment Bill 2021 in South Australia – highlighting the crash repair industry’s efforts to raise key issues with car owners’ “right to repair” over the years.
