Brokers must bear a share of the responsibility for falling rates, says retiring Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) Chairman Murray Rogash.

He says brokers have started taking every policy over $5000 to the market, helping to drive rates down.

"Brokers can't sit back and blame everyone else," he said. "This attitude from a lot of brokers... has had a detrimental effect on rates and on everyone's income.

"Effectively every account we write over that volume is under attack from competitors."

Mr Rogash admits underwriting agencies are playing their part in perpetuating the soft market, but says the bigger insurers are most to blame.

"Underwriting agencies aren't blameless, but they've had to follow the larger insurers down to stay in business," he said. "They are not big enough to control the premiums.

"Larger general insurers are to blame more than everyone else because they do control the market."

Mr Rogash has resigned as UAC Chairman following the sale last month of his agency, CEMAC, to Perth-based Australian Consolidated Insurance.