Former National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) CEO Dallas Booth has been named on this year’s Australia Day Honours List, in recognition of his decades-long contribution to the industry.

Mr Booth and Matthew Kayrooz, who led Suncorp Group’s compulsory third party (CTP) business until October 2020, are among 1042 Australians on the list, with both made Members of the Order of Australia in the General Division.

Mr Booth says he was informed earlier this month before the formal announcement.

“I’m proud of my contributions,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au of his work across 30 years. “Public policy, working in the NSW Government, working for the Insurance Council of Australia and doing a couple of other things, industry representation, NIBA.

“There’s a whole range of areas in insurance ... I’ve put a lot of effort and time into those areas and I’m absolutely honoured to get recognition for that contribution.”

He says his wife, Lynne, has given “fantastic support” throughout his career, as have his children, Louise and Tim.

Mr Booth was NIBA CEO from 2011 to 2021. He was Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) deputy CEO from 2003 to 2006, and Motor Accidents Authority of NSW GM from 1996 to 1998.

After leaving NIBA, he set up his own consultancy and remains involved with the industry. He chairs ICA’s Business Advisory Council.

ICA congratulated Mr Booth in a LinkedIn post, saying: “We are grateful for his expertise and stewardship as our industry and business work together.”

One of Mr Booth’s key achievements included NSW CTP reforms.

In the 1980s he was working in the NSW Attorney-General’s Department and became the resident expert on insurance matters, he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “I worked ... to reform compulsory third party insurance in NSW in 1989 and that included privatisation of CTP.”

He later left to join ICA, doing industry representation work.

“I’ve worked in and around insurance since the mid-1980s in a range of different capacities,” Mr Booth said. 

He says there has been “significant” progress in recent years around the realisation of insurance’s role and how it works. 

“I give very strong credit to Andrew Hall, the current CEO of ICA, for the work he’s done in the past couple of years to really raise the fact that insurance premiums reflect the cost of claims and if you want premiums to be affordable, you have to manage the cost of claims, therefore you have to manage community risk. 

“And I think there is a much stronger understanding of these things now than there was 10 years ago, and massive credit to Andrew and ICA for the work they have been doing.”