Insurance affordability will continue to be a “hot-button issue”, according to Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) CEO Rob Whelan.

Governments control many of the fiscal levers that could reduce the cost of insurance to consumers, he says in the council’s annual report.

After another year of catastrophes in three states “the industry can be pleased with the way it acquitted itself in its disaster response and worked to strengthen trust with communities, governments and the media”.

The standard flood definition was the most significant national reform of last year, following 18 months of discussions with the Federal Government, Mr Whelan says.

The industry first tried to achieve a standard definition in 2008 but was opposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which said it would be anti-competitive.

In 2006 only 3% of residential policies had flood cover; this had risen to 76% by mid-2012 and 83% by the end of the year.

But Mr Whelan warns that unless governments invest in mitigation, many of the towns and cities flooded in the past three years will be flooded again.

Last year’s Queensland floods caused insurance losses of $131.43 million from 10,000 claims, while the NSW and Victorian floods caused losses of $131.89 million from almost 14,000 claims.

The ICA report says states could remove all insurance levies and stamp duties by 2015 through a national payroll tax “that requires states to abolish their taxes on insurance in exchange for the removal of the requirement for them to pay for disability services”.

ICA made 57 public submissions to government inquiries during the year.

By the year’s end its Twitter account had more than 600 followers and its YouTube videos had been watched more than 400 times.

The council was quoted in more than 4360 media reports as it responded to disasters, workers’ compensation and fire services levy issues, premium increases and affordability.

The Find an Insurer website received 266,833 views, with 24% of enquiries related to travel insurance, 22% motor vehicle, 15% building insurance, 12% business, 6% contents, 6% liability, 5% rural, 4% motorbikes, 3% marine, 1% personal and 2% other categories.