Hollard and reinsurers Swiss Re and Munich Re have joined the Hazards Insurance Partnership of government and industry organisations.

The group, which agreed at a previous meeting to expand participation, has also added the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation as an observer. 

The partnership, established by the Albanese government to increase resilience and seek measures to improve insurance affordability and availability, has released a communique following its eighth meeting on August 29.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics, as part of the Australian Climate Service, reported to the group on work to develop a data set to better understand hazard insurance issues.

“The HIP reinforced the priority of this work, including the need to finalise data-sharing arrangements as soon as possible, with agreements now in their final stages, and noted support for the upcoming privacy assessment and consultation processes,” the communique says.

The first part of a project to develop a mitigation measures knowledge base is also complete and development of a public interface is under way.

The partnership, which next meets on November 12, also received an update from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on the Insurance Affordability and Natural Hazard Risk Reduction Taskforce, which was announced in May.