The insurers know they must resist all suggestions of dishonesty, because the price of relaxing their defences will be a legislative reaction of some sort. That’s why they will be concerned that Sydney radio commentator Alan Jones, whose influence on the debate may be crucial, has come out fighting.

Mr Jones said on Friday that the insurance industry “isn’t being pursued hard enough”.

“The Government has yielded to the view that the problem is ambulance-chasing lawyers, Santa Claus judges and greedy policyholders suing for money at every turn, a nonsense perpetuated by politicians who aren’t prepared to take on insurance companies,” he said.

He said “10 Democrats” in the US House of Representatives, a director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, a spokesperson for the Consumers Union and someone from the Centre for Justice and Democracy have called for closer scrutiny of insurers rather than a focus on the causes of rising insurance premiums.

“All these people are from different organisations,” Mr Jones said. “Surely they are not all barking up the wrong tree? The difference between America and us is they seem to be prepared to take on the big insurance giants.”