The new General Insurance Bill will be introduced into Parliament in the winter sessions, Financial Services and Regulation Minister Joe Hockey said yesterday.

His announcement came with a warning to underwriters to stop resisting changes that will see the old Insurance Act 1973 replaced – a statement that caused a fair bit of bewilderment among the insurers.

Speaking in Sydney yesterday at an APRA conference on the progress of revisions to Australia’s prudential regulations, Mr Hockey said he “will no longer tolerate” industry resistance to the changes.

But Insurance Council Executive Director Alan Mason said ICA’s only disagreement with the changes are based on some technical details, most of which have since been resolved.

Promising to introduce the new General Insurance Bill into Parliament on an accelerated timetable, Mr Hockey said today’s regulations are “inflexible and outdated”.

He warned the industry that the HIH collapse has affected public confidence, and also expressed concern at the continuing board and management instability at NRMA.

The Federal Government is looking at its options to help distressed HIH claimants, Mr Hockey said. But he added: “APRA will first have to establish the scale of the problem. It would be a foolhardy government that would seek to solve a problem without being able to quantify the size of that problem first.”