The industry may have to change its laid-back attitude to policyholders living in houses surrounded by bushland, but insurers certainly won’t have any trouble paying claims. The largest insurers for homes in the ACT, IAG subsidiary NRMA Insurance and Suncorp’s GIO, sent extra staff to Canberra immediately after the fires and most media reports on the actions of loss adjusters and claims personnel were positive.

The insurers were also quick to deny that the Canberra disaster would push up premiums, although by this week there were indications they were reviewing the risk factors in bushland living.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s joined the insurers in hosing down a spark of media speculation that the insurers might find it hard to pay so many claims at once.

“Current indications are that the industry will be able to contend with the higher seasonal claims, with no long-standing effects on the financial strength of the industry,” Financial Services Ratings Director Michael Vine said. “At this stage the cost of the bushfires is substantially below that of other Australian natural disasters.”

Mr Vine said the general insurance sector will be “negatively impacted” through higher claims costs, “although the extent to which individual companies will be affected will not generally be known until threats posed by the bushfires have diminished”.