Disaster mitigation, reform of state taxes and steps to tackle insurance affordability should all be considered in the next Federal Budget, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says in its submission to the Government’s pre-budget consultations.

The Natural Disaster Resilience Program could be improved, because communities have found it complex and abandoned projects as a result, ICA says.

Although Victoria’s abolition of the fire services levy from July 1 is a significant step, ICA says there is scope to aim for the removal of all state insurance levies by 2015.

The Commonwealth and states negotiate tax reform through the Council of Australian Governments, and ICA “believes progress in this area has been glacial and that the apparent impasse in Commonwealth/state financial relations has also been a brake on reform of even a modest sort, such as the abolition of insurance stamp duties”.

The Commonwealth could use negotiations on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to push for state tax reform, the submission says.

ICA says it is working with federal agency Centrepay to enable Centrelink clients to pay insurance premiums through the agency – a recommendation of the Natural Disaster Insurance Review.

It says the budget should fund Centrepay to upgrade its system to handle premium payments.