The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) opened its rewritten draft Insurance Brokers Code of Practice for public consultation on July 8, 2026, drawing immediate opposition that cuts to a question with direct commercial implications for Australia’s broking sector: when a voluntary code declines to be contractually enforceable, what recourse does a client actually have?
The context is substantial. According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), total premium invoiced through intermediaries for the six months to December 2025 reached $22.97 billion, with intermediaries placing approximately 50% of gross written premium for APRA-authorised general insurers. The code under dispute sets conduct standards for practitioners operating across that market.
The most consequential element for broking professionals is not what the draft code contains but the decisions that shaped it. The independent review by cameron.ralph.khoury, led by Phil Khoury, delivered 14 recommendations in December 2025 following 18 written submissions, nine individual meetings, and four industry roundtables. NIBA’s January 2026 response supported six and opposed or reworked eight, including a rejection of contractual enforceability and mandatory disclosure templates.
In a July 16, 2026, submission to NIBA CEO Richard Klipin, actuary and former government reviewer John Trowbridge OAM placed that decision in a longer pattern. His February 2026 TasInsure Assessment for the Tasmanian Department of Treasury and Finance documented that a 2021 internal NIBA Code review recommended greater remuneration disclosure and was rejected by the NIBA board, and that a 2025 external independent review made the same recommendation and was rejected again. “There appears to be no good reason for these limitations beyond broker self-interest,” Trowbridge wrote. The practical consequence, in his analysis, is a code that beyond strata insurance requires remuneration disclosures only to the extent already mandated by the Corporations Act – applicable only to retail clients purchasing certain retail products. He recommended that disclosures extend to all quotations and all policies regardless of type or client category.
NIBA has not accepted that framing. According to its July 8, 2026, media release, the draft delivers eight client-facing enhancements including plain-English obligations, dollar-figure remuneration disclosure at invoice stage, extended disclosure across all strata insurance, a 28-day pre-renewal contact commitment, and a minimum five-year independent review cycle. CEO Richard Klipin said: “Codes are fundamentally about trust, and trust is built by being transparent with clients, treating them fairly, and pushing the profession to keep improving.”
On enforceability, NIBA’s February 2026 member consultation paper stated its position directly: “No professional advice code in Australia is contractually enforceable by clients. The Code will remain a professional standards document, consistent with other [advice codes].” NIBA pointed to existing Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) obligations, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) access, terms of engagement, and common law duties as the frameworks already governing the broker-client relationship and warned that contractual enforceability could increase costs passed on to clients without commensurate benefit.
In support of the profession’s standing, NIBA cited its February 2026 consumer research finding that 84% of clients trust their broker to act in their best interests, 91% say brokers helped them achieve better business outcomes, and 95% consider their broker essential at claim time. NIBA also noted that broker-related matters represented 0.8% of complaints lodged with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) in 2024-25.
NIBA’s position on enforceability now sits in direct contrast to a parallel development in the adjacent general insurance market. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) announced in May 2025 that its rewritten General Insurance Code of Practice – covering insurers rather than brokers – would be contractually enforceable, giving consumers direct legal rights under the code. Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) Commissioner Alan Kirkland described contractual enforceability in that context as “an important step towards rebuilding trust.” The two codes are on divergent tracks: one moving toward client-enforceable obligations, the other explicitly declining to.
That contrast sharpens further given ASIC’s broader posture. ASIC’s 2026 enforcement priorities, announced in November 2025, include insurance complaints and claims handling as a new area of focus, and the regulator has doubled its new investigations and nearly doubled new court proceedings over the prior year. The Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (IBCCC) has already referred two strata brokers to ASIC for potential non-compliance with Corporations Act conflict-management requirements. The broker code’s voluntary, non-enforceable status leaves the statutory framework – not the code – as the operative protection for clients where breaches occur. The compliance data reinforces why this matters. Remuneration-disclosure breaches reported to the IBCCC rose from 42 in 2023 to 334 in 2024. The IBCCC’s 2025 Annual Data Report documented 5,417 breaches of the code across the year, affecting 14,842 clients. A targeted strata review found all seven brokers examined in breach, with nine formal determinations issued and two referrals to ASIC.
The Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby (ACIL), the Owners Corporation Network (OCN), and the Unit Owners Association of Queensland (UOAQ) announced on July 16, 2026, that they would not continue engaging in the consultation, redirecting their efforts to ASIC and government. “For years we’ve engaged with NIBA in good faith. We’ve prepared detailed submissions, attended consultations, responded to independent reviews, and provided practical solutions. This draft tells us everything we need to know about the industry’s appetite for genuine reform,” said ACIL chair Tyrone Shandiman. OCN co-managing director David Glover said: “A professional code should lead the industry. It should set higher standards than the law and give consumers confidence that difficult issues are being addressed.”
On the government front, the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission delivered its Strata Commissions Review on February 27, 2026, finding that moving strata managers to fee-for-service could generate more than $333 million in net benefits over 15 years. The commission noted the NSW government can regulate its licensed strata managers but not broker commissions, which fall under Commonwealth financial services law. For broking professionals, this jurisdictional boundary defines the regulatory stakes: state reform can reach strata managers, but broker remuneration structures remain subject only to Commonwealth law and a voluntary code – one that consumer groups have now publicly abandoned as an avenue for change.
The consultation closes August 7, 2026.
