The Hazards Insurance Partnership of government and industry representatives has set out its focus areas for this year.

Its work plan includes developing catchment-specific resilience strategies, empowering households to make informed decisions to reduce risk, and developing a mitigation measures knowledge base of actions households can take.

Treasury is engaging with the partnership on the standard definitions and standard cover regime review, and the group is working on sharing data between government and industry to improve understanding of affordability, underinsurance and non-insurance issues.

A platform of validated mitigation actions is planned to go live by October 31, a communique from the partnership’s sixth meeting in Sydney on February 23 says.

A research project on community disaster risk awareness and attitudes is due to be completed by March 29, while an Australian Bureau of Statistics update indicates data sharing with the bureau may start in April.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt says cost of living and insurance affordability remain a key focus for the Government. He also notes investments in the Disaster Ready Fund, the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, the development of a national standard for considering disaster and climate risk, and land use planning and building code reform.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says good progress has been made through the Hazards Insurance Partnership.

The communique says he noted the need for “sensible policy responses on mitigation” and said more investment through programs such as the Disaster Ready Fund will bring tangible results. He also spoke on the need to accelerate household mitigation opportunities.

The next meeting of the partnership will be held remotely on May 21.