IAG CEO Mike Wilkins believes it’s time for the insurance industry to step up its disaster resilience advocacy by pushing for better planning and building laws.

Speaking at an investor briefing last week, he said the group has undertaken various policy reviews following the spate of natural catastrophes.

He says these events were “a stark reminder” to the industry of its critical economic role and the importance of encouraging the broadest uptake of private insurance.

“While the public debate has occasionally veered towards short-term expediency and political opportunism, we view the discussion as a ways towards providing a suite of policy settings which will deliver long-term value to all our stakeholders,” he said.

“We firmly believe that rather than reactively dipping into the taxpayer’s pocket after each disaster, a far more economically efficient approach is to build community resilience to keep costs affordable.”

IAG wants all levels of government and industry regulators to support tougher planning laws, more mapping data, strengthened building standards and investment in disaster mitigation.

The group’s natural perils unit is also working to build a detailed analysis of different types of weather events such as hailstorms in a bid to gain a deeper understanding of claims patterns and associated costs.

Group Executive Corporate Office Leona Murphy told the briefing this research is also a way to be able to offer risk prevention advice to customers.

She says an example of this was the level of damage sustained during Cyclone Yasi compared to Cyclone Larry in 2006 event, which made a similar landfall.

“While the damage reported was not insignificant, home and building structures were better able to withstand the cyclone, which shows us that our continued focus on community resilience is energy well expended,” Ms Murphy said.

“We believe IAG is well placed to play a proactive role in shaping this public discussion.”

Mr Wilkins also told the briefing that in addition to highlighting the importance of community resilience, IAG will continue advocating a reduction in exorbitant insurance taxes.

“More individuals would make the decision to insure in Australia if the tax burden was lower,” he said. “Australians pay more tax on insurance than any other country.

“We will continue to argue the clear economic and social case for the reduction of this burden.”