Natural disaster mitigation is vital to keep insurance affordable, because without it regional communities may never recover, Suncorp says as it releases a new report today.

The study, Economic Recovery after Disaster Strikes Volume Two, released in conjunction with SGS Economics & Planning, examines the impact of recent catastrophes and shows the importance of insurance in restoring local economic activity. It follows an earlier report released in 2019.

The latest report models the economic impact from the Townsville floods in January 2019, the Black Summer bushfires in East Gippsland and Batemans Bay in December 2019 to January last year, and the east coast hailstorms also in January last year.

Insurance injected an initial $4 billion into the areas' local economies, the report says, rising to $6.8 billion over three years.

Without swift insurance payments, the economic damage would have been greater, and in some cases permanent, with regional areas worst affected.

"Without insurance, regional communities may never recover from natural disasters," a Suncorp spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

"The report shows East Gippsland's bushfire impacted economy will not recover until after 2022, and without insurance, the region's economy would have permanently declined by 4%, or almost $100 million.

"If we can lower the risk and impact of natural disasters, people and their homes will be protected from devastation and we can keep insurance affordable."

Suncorp Group CEO Steve Johnston says last summer demonstrates that communities need to be better protected from Australia's changing climate.

"Disaster mitigation, rather than disaster clean-up, is what Australia needs to focus on," he said.

"Preparing our homes and communities to better withstand extreme weather is a smarter investment than rebuilding. Yet governments spend 97% of disaster funding on mopping up and just 3% on preparation."

Mr Johnston says Suncorp will continue to push governments to prioritise investment in "appropriate resilience infrastructure" to reduce natural disasters' impact on homes, communities and the economy.

"Creating a more resilient Australia requires a richer, deeper partnership between government, industry and communities to address not just how we respond to these disasters, but in how we prepare for the future."

Click here for the full report.