The insurance industry is making “enormous progress” in the drive to solve the flood cover issue, Insurance Council of Australia CEO Rob Whelan says.

Speaking at the Insight Insurance Brokers Association annual conference on the Sunshine Coast at the weekend, Mr Whelan said flood cover is “a very complex and difficult issue to deal with”.

He says it was very difficult to defend the industry’s position over flood following the Brisbane floods. “But could we have done better? Absolutely, and we will do better.

“We have to manage it well so the industry is not damaged, but this is an area in which the industry has been most vulnerable, and has been for decades. We’ve never really resolved this since the 1980s.”

Mr Whelan says now is the time to work to resolve the flood cover issue, but a great deal needed to be done by governments before a complete solution is possible.