Representatives from major insurers and the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) have been called to a meeting with a Treasury taskforce to discuss “technical” design aspects of the Federal Government’s cyclone reinsurance pool.

The pool will be backed by a $10 billion Government guarantee and will provide cover for cyclone and cyclone-related flood above the Tropic of Capricorn from July next year.

The Government predicts $1.5 billion in premium savings over 10 years but wants the scheme to be cost-neutral.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands the “insurer roundtable” meeting will take place tomorrow afternoon in Sydney.

Consumer groups have expressed concern that they have not been invited, but it’s believed the meeting is aimed just at insurers to gain “technical” industry feedback before consulting more broadly.

As insuranceNEWS.com.au has reported, Treasury has released a consultation document on the pool, with submissions due by June 18.

Tomorrow’s two-hour meeting will go through the key questions in the consultation document and provide opportunities for group discussion.

Financial Rights Legal Centre Policy and Communications Officer Julia Davis told insuranceNEWS.com.au she finds the situation “frustrating”.

“Why would they go ahead with meetings before the consultation is completed? Not having any consumer groups present is an obvious deficiency.

“Nobody from Government has reached out to us to be a part of this process. I only found out about the idea through the budget announcements, and only heard about the consultation paper from a contact in the industry.”

Queensland consumer representative Margaret Shaw says she was not invited to tomorrow’s roundtable but Treasury has requested an online meeting with her at a later date.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands that in addition to the insurer roundtable and broader consultation, an Expert Advisory Panel will also be set up.

One industry source today questioned whether the pool would be up and running by July next year, while another says the Government’s aim of making the scheme cost-neutral creates a major challenge in delivering significant premium savings.

“This isn’t going to be up and running in 12 months,” one source said. “Not a chance. The complexities involved are astonishing.”

The Insurance Council of Australia confirmed it will be represented at tomorrow’s meeting, but a Treasury spokeswoman declined to confirm who has been invited.

“The Treasury-led Taskforce is hosting a roundtable with stakeholders on Friday, 4 June 2021,” the spokeswoman said.

“The roundtable will seek feedback on the technical design questions outlined in the consultation paper, which is available on the Treasury website.”