The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says Australians support the industry’s call for a ban on building residences in flood-prone areas.

It says a poll of more than 1600 people conducted for it by Roy Morgan Research also found people believe local, state and federal governments have a major role to play in protecting against floods.

The council has not provided a breakdown of what percentage of those surveyed backed these proposals.

Similarly, ICA says consumers also back the need for a national database of flood risk properties, the need for a standard definition for flood in all policies and a requirement for insurers to set out what isn’t covered in the policy.

Again there were no figures provided by ICA in its release saying what the percentage of those surveyed backed these recommendations.

“Australians understand there is no simple solution to the flood insurance debate, and we need to develop a national approach to better deal with the challenges presented by floods,” CEO Rob Whelan said.

“The general insurance industry has advocated for many years the need for a multi-faceted approach to tackle disasters.”  

He says insurers have moved to make necessary changes on issues such as a standard definition for flood, but governments must also make changes on issues they are responsible for like land use, flood mitigation and building standards.