The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance is running a five-city briefing series this spring, timed to reach professionals as the General Insurance Code of Practice works through its most significant rewrite in more than 30 years - and as the schedule for that rewrite continues to move.
Called Industry Connect, the series replaces ANZIIF's previous Member Connect events and runs through October and November, offering a two-hour in-person update for claims handlers, brokers, underwriters, risk and compliance staff. Sessions are set for Victoria on October 8, New South Wales on October 15, Queensland on October 27, Western Australia on October 29, and South Australia on November 5. Law firm Sparke Helmore joins the ANZIIF sessions to cover the broader wave of regulatory and legislative change expected to shape insurance beyond this year, alongside updates on parallel code reviews already under way in life insurance and broking.
When the Insurance Council of Australia announced the code redraft in May 2025, it expected to lodge the revised code with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for approval by mid-2026. Public consultation closed on July 21, 2026, with 28 submissions received from consumer representatives, industry participants and other interested parties - a slight increase from the 22 submissions received during the 2023-24 independent review consultation. The ICA then extended the ASIC lodgement deadline to late October 2026, citing the number, complexity and variation of submissions received and requests from some stakeholders for additional consultation time. That is the second slip in the schedule. The effective start date for the rewritten code is now expected in 2028 - later than the 2027 timeframe cited in some earlier materials - allowing insurers time to adapt their systems and reissue product disclosure statements.
ANZIIF chief executive Katrina Shanks (pictured) said the series was built around the pace of change professionals are now managing day to day. "Insurance professionals are operating in an increasingly complex environment, with code reviews, regulatory reform and legislative change creating new expectations for the sector," Shanks said. "Industry Connect is designed to give professionals a clear, practical and timely understanding of the changes ahead, while also creating space for meaningful industry connection."
The delay does not diminish the significance of what is being written. The redrafted code's central change is that key insurer obligations would become legally enforceable as part of consumer contracts, subject to ASIC approval under Regulatory Guide 183 - a shift that transforms the gap between what a policy says an insurer will do and what it can actually be held to from a governance question into a legal one.
Three other substantive changes are proposed alongside contractual enforceability. Any home or motor claim left unresolved after 12 months would be automatically accepted. A new circumstances-based definition of vulnerability replaces the previous approach, accompanied by an Extra Care framework for how insurers must respond to customers in vulnerable situations. Family violence protections are broadened to cover financial abuse and coercion, not only physical harm. Each of those changes carries operational implications for claims, compliance and disclosure functions that go beyond what the current code requires.
The redraft is the product of years of accumulated pressure. It follows the Independent Code Review of 2023-24 and the ICA's March 2025 Industry Action Plan, which itself responded to findings from the Parliamentary Flood Inquiry into insurers' handling of the 2022 floods - among the most heavily criticised episodes in the industry's recent history.
Consumer groups have given the redraft a mixed reception. Drew MacRae, principal of policy development at the Financial Rights Legal Centre, said the industry had been given a long runway to deliver stronger protections and had not fully used it. "Australian insurance policyholders have waited years for a stronger, more enforceable general insurance code of practice - one that will fix the poor claims handling practices that we've seen repeatedly after a string of extreme weather events," MacRae said, adding that while contractual enforceability would bring tangible benefit, the trade-off had come "at the cost of a sufficiently strong code."
For insurers, the 2028 effective date is not a reason to wait. The 24-month transition period built into the current schedule means compliance obligations will be live in the 2027-28 window, and the enforceability shift means the gap between what systems can prove was done and what contracts say will be done becomes a legal exposure rather than a governance one.
For brokers, the parallel code review in broking is the more immediate watch item - though ANZIIF's Industry Connect sessions cover both tracks alongside the general insurance code, giving professionals a chance to hear the state of play directly rather than piecing it together from separate regulator and advocacy releases.
The current code remains in force throughout the transition, with the Code Governance Committee continuing its monitoring of existing obligations in the interim.
