Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino will join an insurer delegation to Europe as he considers the “best ways” to deal with issues around affordability and availability of cover.

Dr Mulino will meet reinsurers on the trip later this month, mirroring an excursion that included his predecessor Stephen Jones in 2023.

Mr Jones described the fact-finding mission as “one of the most valuable things” he did as a minister, and argued it fostered a “team Australia” mentality that resulted in a strong relationship between industry and government.

Dr Mulino says his “short trip” will feature meetings with three key reinsurers and institutions that manage natural disaster insurance.

"Australia shares the challenges of containing rising insurance costs, particularly for those in disaster prone areas, with many other parts of the world," he said.
 
"As the Albanese Government considers the best ways to deal with those costs, and with those who are no longer able to get insurance, it is sensible to have an exchange of ideas and approaches with other countries and with global reinsurers."

The Insurance Council of Australia says affordability challenges are increasing but insurers are addressing this by reducing premiums for resilient properties, sharing risk data for policy solutions and collaborating with regulators.

“As global capital markets are a key driver of insurance premium costs in Australia, it is highly beneficial for the government and insurers to sell Australia’s resilience and built environment to the world’s most senior reinsurance executives,” a spokesperson said.

“This delegation will showcase Australia’s world-leading adaptive capacity to major global reinsurers in London, Munich and Zurich that are part of the provision of a $50 billion annual capital injection into Australia’s insurance market. 

“It will also allow us to learn from global best practice in risk reduction and other solutions to moderate premiums.”

ICA declined to confirm which insurance executives will join the delegation.

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