The Federal Government Budget has risked “squandering a once in a generation opportunity” to promote savings and long-term investment for the future of Australia’s economy, Suncorp CEO Patrick Snowball says.

Speaking last week at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney he urged the Government to take a more business-like approach to avoid the “lack of economic and commercial discipline that is the root cause of much of Europe’s current problems”.

He says the Government should follow the example of business, which has had to reduce costs, create a capital surplus and maintain customer satisfaction to weather economic uncertainty.

The equivalent for the Government is the “simultaneous pursuit of long-term investment, a Budget surplus and voter confidence, if not satisfaction”, he says.

He says the proceeds of the robust resources sector should be recycled back into the economy by reducing taxes on businesses, improving infrastructure and tackling microeconomic reforms.

Instead, the Government has chosen “political imperatives rather than the economic imperatives of the nation”.

Mr Snowball says this is particularly evident in the Budget announcements of $47 billion in personal income tax cuts and $5 billion in new payments to households, at a time when the Government should reduce expenditure and return to surplus.

He also stressed the need for private insurers and governments to better manage the costs of disaster recovery and to consider the issues related to high-risk areas.

“In high-risk areas premium income will never recover the cost of insured losses after a natural hazard disaster, and you need infrastructure investment to ensure insurance is commercially feasible,” he said.

Suncorp recently ceased writing new business in Roma and Emerald in western Queensland after paying out $150 million in claims and receiving only $4 million in premiums in the past two years.

Mr Snowball said this decision would hold “until public mitigation measures are in place”.