If there was a common tune being sung at the “Terrorism Insurance Explained” seminars organised by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide over the past week, it was that increases imposed on commercial insurance to pay for terror cover are “a premium and definitely not a levy”.

Every speaker at the conference, including senior lawyer John Morgan, CGU National Underwriting Manager Andrew Beer and Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation CEO Neil Weeks, made the point that the compulsory payment can’t be regarded in the same way as fire service levies.

ICA Policy Manager Peter Anderson says “it is up to insurers to price their own risks” and “whether they charge extra for the terrorism inclusion”.

“There is no such thing as a terrorism levy,” Mr Anderson said. “There is no set ‘levy’ as such and premiums will differ from insurance to insurance and class to class.”

Mr Weeks said the terror premium “is simply a reinsurance contract” and “if a company did look at it as a levy, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would be taking a lot of interest in them.”

Mr Beer said terrorism insurance has already been “ridiculed by talkback radio stations and other media”, and it’s up to insurance brokers to explain what it all means.