On 10 September 2003, the then Australian Federal Government
announced that it would be undertaking a comprehensive review of
the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (the Act). Its
first act was to set up a Review Panel of Alan Cameron and Nancy
Milne. The Review Panel published its report in two stages, the
final stage of which was delivered to Government in June 2004. DLA
Piper (then known as Phillips Fox) followed these developments
closely. It was the only law firm to make submissions to every
stage of the initial panel review. Since then, we have been
involved on behalf of clients in numerous rounds of consultation on
various draft versions of the proposed reform legislation,
including both public Exposure Drafts and confidential drafts on
which the Government sought to consult with key stakeholders,
including the Insurance Council of Australia, the National
Insurance Brokers Association and consumer groups. Throughout that
process, the form of the legislation has
