A tribunal found that how NSW home building premiums are calculated should be released - but not icare's internal business numbers.
The ruling, handed down on June 29, 2026, matters for any insurer that hands commercial data to a regulator and assumes it stays confidential.
Maurice Blackburn lodged access applications with the State Insurance Regulatory Authority on April 29, 2025, seeking documents about the NSW home building compensation scheme. Builders doing residential work must take out the cover, and the cost is typically passed on to homeowners. The scheme affects about 20,000 households a year, with maximum cover of $340,000 per dwelling.
Only one insurer is licensed to write the cover: SI Corp. icare provides the cover on SI Corp's behalf under the "icare HBCF" brand. Although the law allows other insurers to apply for a licence, none had succeeded, leaving what the Tribunal described as a monopoly. icare itself was not a party to the proceedings.
SIRA released some documents but refused access to 45 in full and two in part, arguing an overriding public interest against disclosure. It relied on the confidentiality of the material, the risk to how it carries out its functions, and a secrecy provision in the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW). It also argued that releasing premium data could hand a future competitor an advantage and undermine competitive neutrality.
That competitive-neutrality point is the part insurers will note. SIRA's witness described the scheme as "contestable by design," meaning other insurers can apply to compete. On that basis, SIRA argued, premium information could help a new entrant build its own pricing or undercut icare in specific parts of the market.
The Tribunal accepted that the premium information was confidential and had been supplied on that basis. It gave more than moderate weight to a secrecy provision, s 121A of the Home Building Act, which restricts sharing "protected information" about an insurer's business obtained by the regulator.
But it did not treat confidentiality as the end of the matter. SIRA has statutory powers to compel the information it needs, the Senior Member noted, so releasing it would not meaningfully harm future supply. And with no actual competitor in the market yet, the competitive-neutrality and business-interest arguments were given only moderate weight.
Weighing the considerations, the Tribunal drew a line. Information about how premiums are calculated should be disclosed, it found, giving that consideration "preponderant weight" in light of long-running public concern about high premiums under a monopoly. Information about icare's internal operations - its profits, its specific costs and its business planning - should stay confidential.
Timing was central. The Senior Member said that but for the absence of competition at present, the interest in protecting even the premium-calculation information would have carried greater weight.
The decision is not the final word. Rather than order the documents released, the Tribunal remitted the decision to SIRA to reconsider in line with its reasons, and set a directions hearing for July 7, 2026.
