The industry should stand up to politicians who engage in “ridiculous” criticism of insurers before claims from this week’s flooding disaster have even been assessed, the Insurance News podcast was told.

This week’s episode of INsight, hosted by Insurance News Managing Director Andrew Silcox, features the observations of Insurance News Publisher Terry McMullan, Managing Editor John Deex, and Deputy Editor Wendy Pugh.

The focus was the flooding catastrophe event which hit NSW and Queensland, and Mr McMullan highlighted comments made by politicians warning insurers against “tricky” behaviour.

“This always happens after a major catastrophe – you’ll start getting politicians making ridiculous comments about the industry,” he said.

“In terms of disasters the industry really is very efficient now compared with 10 or 15 years ago.

“I think really we need to be a lot more alert in taking on politicians who criticise the industry. If you want to keep the morale of the industry up you really do have to get these criticisms sorted quickly.”

This week’s episode also discusses the findings of the 10th Vero SME Insurance Index, and QBE’s partnership with Australia Post.

You can find a new episode of INsight published here every week.