General insurance and financial services news from Australia and around the worldhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/en-auhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/black-summer-shows-need-for-flexible-disaster-responsehttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/black-summer-shows-need-for-flexible-disaster-response<p>Preparing for natural disasters means designing emergency systems that can adapt as conditions change, according to researchers from the University of NSW...</p>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:12:34 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/afca-issues-claims-guidelines-case-studieshttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/afca-issues-claims-guidelines-case-studies<p>Insurers must make a decision on a claim within four months, although a &ldquo;simple claim that is plainly covered&rdquo; should take less time to accept, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority says...</p>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:11:18 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/push-to-let-council-planners-see-digital-twin-building-datahttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/push-to-let-council-planners-see-digital-twin-building-data<p>Geoscape Australia has urged the government to give local councils access to the national buildings data set &ndash; an AI-driven &ldquo;digital twin&rdquo; of the country&rsquo;s 19 million buildings...</p>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:11:00 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/natural-peril-agencies-form-trans-tasman-alliancehttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/natural-peril-agencies-form-trans-tasman-alliance<p>Natural Hazards Research Australia CEO Andrew Gissing and New Zealand Natural Hazards and Resilience Platform executive director Richard Smith have agreed the groups will work together to advance risk reduction...</p>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:10:37 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/allianz-aims-to-educate-ev-drivers-as-cover-quotes-surgehttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/allianz-aims-to-educate-ev-drivers-as-cover-quotes-surge<p>Allianz says the number of electric vehicle policy quotes it issues has jumped by two-thirds compared with a year ago...</p>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:09:46 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/underwriting-rules-relaxed-amid-intense-competitionhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/underwriting-rules-relaxed-amid-intense-competition<p>Coverages have broadened and tough-to-place risks such as property have had exclusions lifted as soft commercial pricing persists, according to an Aon review of the Australian market...</p>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:54:21 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/ract-partners-with-tas-insure-on-affordability-pushhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/ract-partners-with-tas-insure-on-affordability-push<p>A steering committee met in Tasmania this morning to &ldquo;start immediate work on priority actions&rdquo; after RACT agreed to partner with TasInsure on making cover more affordable and accessible...</p>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:54:03 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/counsellors-says-clearer-broker-code-still-falls-shorthttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/counsellors-says-clearer-broker-code-still-falls-short<p>The redrafted broking code of practice is &ldquo;undoubtedly easier to read, but not necessarily stronger where it matters most&rdquo;, financial counsellors say...</p>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:53:39 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/flood-trumps-stormwater-to-sink-property-owner-s-claimhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/flood-trumps-stormwater-to-sink-property-owner-s-claim<p>A homeowner who claimed for damage from stormwater run-off has fallen foul of a flood exclusion in her policy after a dispute before the financial services ombudsman...</p>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:53:30 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/we-are-all-devastated-tributes-flow-for-tim-wedlockhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/we-are-all-devastated-tributes-flow-for-tim-wedlock<p>Hundreds of insurance professionals have paid tribute to &ldquo;one of a kind&rdquo; broking leader Tim Wedlock, who was fatally injured in a road accident in Nashville, Tennessee...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:09:49 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/us-authorities-probe-crash-that-killed-broking-figurehttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/us-authorities-probe-crash-that-killed-broking-figure<p>Police in the US are continuing to investigate a devastating accident that took the life of Australian broking leader Tim Wedlock and injured three others...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:09:42 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/updated-code-may-fail-asic-test-industry-toldhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/updated-code-may-fail-asic-test-industry-told<p>The redrafted industry code of practice risks being rejected by the corporate regulator, the General Insurance Code Governance Committee has warned...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:09:26 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/judge-rejects-self-representation-bid-after-ai-hallucination-claimhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/judge-rejects-self-representation-bid-after-ai-hallucination-claim<p>New Zealand&rsquo;s High Court has refused to let a director represent his company in a case against Vero NZ after hearing the man used AI to write his application...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:55:53 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/concerns-mount-as-pi-waiver-for-private-midwives-to-endhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/concerns-mount-as-pi-waiver-for-private-midwives-to-end<p>Midwives in private practice will need professional indemnity insurance from January after a federally granted exemption ends...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:55:42 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/hounds-of-love-can-t-be-blamedhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/hounds-of-love-can-t-be-blamed<p>A dog owner has avoided liability after his overfriendly pet German shepherd knocked over a neighbour and hurt her wrist, in what injury lawyers say is a key decision affecting negligence cases...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:55:18 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/energy-giant-apologises-after-hack-exposes-nearly-1m-customershttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/energy-giant-apologises-after-hack-exposes-nearly-1m-customers<p>Origin Energy says it is continuing to investigate after the personal information of about 900,000 current and former customers was accessed in a cyber breach it disclosed last week...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:54:46 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/strata-peak-body-leader-to-departhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/strata-peak-body-leader-to-depart<p>Strata Community Association Australasia CEO Alisha Fisher will step down after almost eight years leading the organisation...</p>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:52:59 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/profit-rich-property-line-drawing-capacity-marsh-sayshttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/profit-rich-property-line-drawing-capacity-marsh-says<p>Australia&rsquo;s commercial property market has a &ldquo;supply and demand capacity imbalance&rdquo; as pricing continues to tumble, according to Marsh...</p>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:57:52 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/ica-vows-thorough-code-review-as-consumers-demand-more-protectionhttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/ica-vows-thorough-code-review-as-consumers-demand-more-protection<p>Work on an updated industry code has moved to the next phase, the Insurance Council of Australia says, as consumer groups continue to voice concerns over the proposed redraft...</p>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:57:45 GMThttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/more-ransomware-victims-refuse-payment-demandshttps://www.insurancenews.com.au/local/more-ransomware-victims-refuse-payment-demands<p>Most Australian organisations hit by ransomware attacks have refused to meet extortion payment demands, according to a Howden report...</p>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:57:28 GMT