The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has again pushed for an increase in federal spending on disaster mitigation works in a pre-budget submission to the Government for the next financial year.

Just 3% of the Government’s disaster funding budget is directed at mitigation and prevention, with the rest going towards recovery and clean-up actions.

“Correction of this imbalance, in a manner that incentivises a systemic approach to reducing existing community exposures and preventing future planning mistakes, should be a national priority,” ICA says in the submission.

“As we have consistently argued, there needs to be an appropriate balance between the money spent on disaster response activities compared with the funding for disaster mitigation.

ICA says the 2020/21 Budget “should prioritise disaster mitigation funding in order to reduce the Australian community’s exposure to natural disasters”.

The council has also urged Canberra to work with the states and territories to carry out tax reforms, an area that has taken on greater urgency because of climate change.

Replacing insurance duties with broad-based taxes will encourage consumers to insure their properties, reducing the burden on governments to finance rebuilding efforts when disasters strike, the submission says.