Consumer advocate Denis Nelthorpe’s long engagement with the insurance industry has been recognised in yesterday’s Queen’s Birthday honours list.

Mr Nelthorpe, a lawyer now working with the West Heidelberg Community Legal Service in Melbourne, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for “services to social justice and advocacy for consumers’ rights, to the development of national credit legislation, and to the provision of legal services to the disadvantaged through a range of community organisations”.

Apart from a wide variety of advocacy on behalf of consumers over a long period, Mr Nelthorpe has been involved in the establishment of a dispute resolution service for the general insurance industry since the late 1980s. Today he is a consumer member of the Financial Ombudsman Service board.

He was a founder of the Consumer Law Centre of Victoria in 1993-1998 and co-founder of the Consumer Credit Legal Service, and continues to advocate the establishment of insurance services to benefit low income-earners and disadvantaged groups in the community. 

“I was the first consumer advocate to be involved in insurance,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “I will always regard my involvement in the terms of reference that led to the ombudsman scheme and the insurance code of practice as among the highlights.

“I’ve never been interested in taking a traditional lawyer’s perspective to such things. What I’ve always been interested in is making sure that things work properly so the right solutions occur.”