The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has set out a policy platform for the forthcoming federal election that calls for increased resilience spending and the removal of external and artificial barriers to cover such as taxes and levies.

“State taxes and charges continue to discourage adequate levels of insurance, leaving businesses and consumers vulnerable in their time of need,” CEO Andrew Hall says in the document titled Building a More Resilient Australia.

“Given the public policy benefits of adequate insurance cover there is a clear role for the Commonwealth to lead by providing incentives for states and territories to undertake reform in this area, as it has done with economic reforms in the past.”

ICA says governments should collectively lift resilience funding to $2 billion over the next five years, and outlines six flood, cyclone and bushfire proposals that it estimates would save governments and households at least $19 billion to 2050.

The 12 areas the policy document identifies as requiring attention also include land use planning, building codes and arrangements for the clean-up of waste and debris after a natural disaster.

It calls for action on cross-country and international movement of insurance personnel, and improved data sharing to support the assessment of claims and the provision of services by governments and non-government organisations after a disaster.

Policy and regulatory approaches should support innovation and new market entrants, while Australia needs a robust cyber security policy framework that brings together government agencies, the tech industry, financial services and business groups, it says.

The report proposes a review of tort law arrangements, given current difficulties and changes since the last major reforms in 2001-02 to address insurance availability problems experienced by small businesses at that time.

“One of the options for further discussion could be the use of statutory defined benefits frameworks for personal injury claims, similar to those used in CTP and workers’ compensation insurance schemes,” it says.

The document seeks policy settings to support a thriving lenders’ mortgage insurance market, given pressures from programs such as the New Home Guarantee, and calls on the next government to amend the Federal Court Act and rules to enable a test case process similar to that used in the UK to address business interruption cover disputes.

Click here to read the document.