Suncorp Group CEO Patrick Snowball wants a review of natural disaster management modelled on the Wallis Inquiry of the late ’90s, which led to the financial services reforms of 2001 and later.

Speaking at a business lunch in Ipswich on Friday, he said while there was a commission of inquiry into the Queensland floods, there needs to be a national review into the way natural disasters are managed.

“I believe Australia should go further and have the equivalent of a Wallis Inquiry into natural hazard disaster management, because this deserves to be a much higher government reform priority,” he said.

“The only matters that seem to be on the political agenda are flood insurance and the operation of the Wivenhoe Dam.

“That could hardly be considered a substantial reform of Australia’s disaster management or likely to protect the lives of thousands of Australians.”

Mr Snowball says he accepts disaster management is complex and reform has not been easy to achieve.

“This means that effective disaster management requires reform and action across many different areas,” he said.

“It also means that effective disaster management is a collective responsibility and deficiencies in disaster management are unlikely to be the fault of specific individuals, industries or companies.”

He says after the pace of reform major disasters is often too slow and the scope of that reform too narrow.

“I am questioning whether the current approach to disaster management reform in Australia needs to be reconsidered to ensure full engagement of governments, business, communities and individuals to achieve the best reform outcomes,” he said.

“The Federal Government has commented recently on Australia’s ‘patchwork economy’ and the problems uneven economic growth causes. 

“Australia could also end up with a patchwork approach to disaster management unless governments are prepared to focus reform on all of the important aspects and not just some.”

Mr Snowball says insurers’ role in the debate is being distracted by a political focus on what went wrong rather than what has gone right.

“I believe that considering the huge task being managed by insurance companies and the fact that most claims have been processed, criticism of the industry about the pace of its overall response is wrong,” he said.