The Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) congratulates the Federal Minister for Small Business and Tourism, Fran Bailey, on her announcement of the new voluntary Code of Conduct for the smash repair industry.

“We welcome the Minister’s announcement of a Code of Conduct to take effect from September this year, which will improve relationships between smash repairers and insurers, and provide transparency and certainty for small business smash repairers,”  VACC Executive Director, David Purchase, said.

“This has been a ten-year campaign originated by the Body Repair Division of VACC, supported by Australian Body Repairers of Australia (AMBRA) and later the State and Federal Governments to bring about an agreed set of standards for smash repairers and insurers.

“VACC drafted the original Code in 1995 following the Industry Commission Inquiry and we’ve been lobbying ever since to bring in a Code of Conduct,” Mr Purchase said.

“Credit must go to Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, Marsha Thompson, in the first instance, who took our campaign to State Parliament.

“We’d like to congratulate also the Federal Minister for Human Services, Joe Hockey, who first pushed our cause in Federal Parliament, before handing the project onto the current Minister for Small Business and Tourism, Fran Bailey,” Mr Purchase said.

“This Code of Conduct will set a new platform for relations between repairers and insurance companies – something which has been sorely needed for quite some time.

“At the moment, the only insurance signatories to this agreement are AAMI, IAG, Allianz and SuncorpGio. We would encourage other insurers to support this new Code.”

Mr Purchase said this new Code of Conduct would redress the imbalance between small business crash repairers and big business insurers and ensure a win-all situation for the service industry and consumers alike.