The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has congratulated the incoming Labor Party government of new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for its election victory.

“The Insurance Council congratulates Anthony Albanese on being elected Prime Minister at this critical time in our nation’s history and we look forward to working with the new Labor Government,” said ICA CEO Andrew Hall.

Earlier this morning at Government House in Canberra, Albanese was sworn in as Australia's 31st prime minister.

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The ICA news release referred to Labor’s “welcome” election campaign commitment to improve communities’ disaster resilience though a $200 million a year Disaster Ready Fund.

“We warmly welcomed Labor’s Disaster Ready Fund which, if supported financially by the states and territories, will make a real difference to protecting those homes and communities exposed to extreme weather risk,” said Hall.  

The release said this initiative is line with the ICA’s election policy platform, Building a More Resilient Australia, which proposed a $2 billion, five-year investment from the federal and state governments.

That proposal called for a range of measures to better protect communities from the impacts of extreme weather including changes to building codes and land use planning. 

“The ICA has worked in a bipartisan manner with both sides of politics for many years on issues of importance to insurance customers and the sector, with a particular focus in recent years and months on community and household resilience,” said Hall.

The ICA also said it is looking forward to working with the Albanese government on improving the resilience of Australia’s digital environment. The release mentioned ensuring policy settings for “a vibrant and sustainable cyber insurance market” which it said was “so vital” for protecting Australian businesses from the impacts of cyber crime.