A broking and insurtech leader has called Peter Dutton’s divestment plan “hot air” – but lists five alternative initiatives he says could help bring down high premiums.

“My opinion is this strategy taken by Mr Dutton is nothing but hot air that won’t actually materialise, and even if it did will [provide] little to no genuine assistance for those struggling that it aims to help,” Brisbane-based Insurebot founder Scott Norton wrote on LinkedIn.

Mr Norton, who earlier this month sold his Norton & Co brokerage to Cornerstone Risk Group, says the Opposition Leader is “not wrong” in identifying insurance affordability as an issue, but that it’s high risk that is leading to high premiums.

However, he lists five actions that could help general insurance customers.

Removal of taxes

“It’s the most obvious one, but removing any stamp duty, GST or, the worst of all, fire service levy (for states that still charge it) would have an immediate impact on consumers’ insurance bills.”

Transparent underwriters

“Insurers operating multiple brands on the single insurance licence should be forced to explicitly highlight to customers all the brands they operate and possibly even gain their express consent prior to being able to provide a quote.”

Mandate aggregators

“Insurers deliberately refrain from appearing on aggregators to make things more difficult for consumers to become aware of alternative options, in the hope that the lazy tax will apply and the consumer will just renew with the incumbent.”

Promote brokers

“Publicise the fantastic role general insurance brokers do in assisting clients. In this current climate, consumers could really do with all the assistance they can get and I think general insurance brokers are so well positioned to offer this help.”

Give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission a bigger stick

“Give the ACCC and the courts more powers and laws to assist in saying no to large insurers acquiring smaller players. You wouldn’t need to divest insurance companies to create competition if you never let them all merge and acquire in the first place.”

Click here to read Mr Norton’s article in full.

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