The mainstream media is finally starting to catch up on the fire services levy (FSL) issue in NSW and Victoria.

Yesterday the Australian Financial Review reported what the industry has been trying to tell state governments and citizens for years – that Victorian and NSW policyholders are among the highest taxed in the world.

Last year the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) – which has been campaigning with other industry associations for more than a decade to abolish the tax – said it would “re-prioritise campaigning for FSL in 2005” placing it lower on its to-do list.

ICA said it needed to focus on other issues because the NSW and Victorian governments – which both held reviews into the tax, but decided to stick with the current system – weren’t listening.

Grahame Morris, a partner at Jackson Wells Morris who acted as a consultant to ICA last year, said at last November’s Insurance Outlook Conference that the industry will find it “very hard to make headway on an issue that adds political hurt to a government”.

But the fact that the issue is making headlines in the mainstream media is a good sign, according to ICA spokesman Rod Frail.

ICA is currently collecting taxes data in NSW to “supplement the submission made to the NSW review last year”.

“We want to give the [NSW] Government a more accurate picture of the taxes,” Mr Frail said.