Australia’s lack of any formal system for assessing a building’s resilience to natural disasters is making it difficult for insurers to set the most appropriate premiums, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says.

CEO Andrew Hall made the comments after the ICA hosted its third “Building Stronger Homes” roundtable in Sydney on Tuesday.

The forums, run jointly with Master Builders Australia, want changes to be introduced to building standards and land use allocation to “reduce the risk from the outset” and improve Australia’s natural hazard resilience and recovery.

Mr Hall says resilience standards will only be achieved with increased collaboration between industry, government and the community. The roundtable recommends simpler, cost-effective access to an agreed code to support compliance by builders and inspectors.

“At present, there is no system in place in Australia to assess and record the level of resilience in a building, making it difficult for insurers to adjust premiums accordingly,” Mr Hall says.

The roundtable suggests an information hub be set up between government and industry to share risk information, land planning data and building history.

MBA CEO Denita Wawn says this information sharing is key to knowing resilience needs as “data can better support informed decision making by government, particularly in relation to land use planning”.

Ms Wawn recommends the insurance and building industries be formally included in the consultation processes of the Australian Building Codes Board and Standards Australia to “improve information sharing and provide practical industry insights in relation to future reforms”.

The roundtable says land use planning reforms should better incorporate the “experience and insights” of the insurance industry.

It also wants government incentives to invest in resilience measures when building new homes and new resilience information tools to help industry and consumers.

Addressing Tuesday’s event was Kevin Anderson, NSW Minister for Better Regulation. Representatives from Standards Australia, government, the Australian Building Codes Board and the property and architecture industries attended.

A final roundtable will be held in June.