The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the Resilient Insurance Markets Initiative — a structured, bilateral partnership designed to coordinate policy advocacy, share expertise, and drive community resilience outcomes across the region.
The move formally transforms what had been an informal trans-Tasman working relationship into a committed, bilateral framework — arriving at a moment when both countries are grappling with an accelerating convergence of risks. Climate volatility, cyber threats, geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence are reshaping the risk environment for households, businesses, and governments alike.
The two countries are natural partners in this effort. Australia and New Zealand share geography, history, and exposure to natural hazard — and both carry among the highest per capita natural disaster losses in the world. Those losses are not stabilising.
Under the initiative, the ICA and ICNZ will coordinate across three core priorities: sharing insights on public-private risk reduction measures; coordinating advocacy to accelerate community resilience outcomes; and supporting the alignment of regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions where doing so enhances productivity and consumer outcomes.
The structure will be supported by regular bilateral engagement, joint policy coordination, and ongoing knowledge sharing between the two peak bodies — a shift from parallel workstreams to a genuinely unified front.
ICNZ CEO Kris Faafoi brought the argument down to a number that the industry — and its broker network — should have front of mind. “Every dollar invested before a disaster can return $5 to $8 in avoided losses,” Faafoi said.
Pre-event investment is not a cost — it is the most efficient claims management strategy available. For brokers working with clients on risk transfer and risk management, that ratio is a compelling piece of client education.
Faafoi described New Zealand as a nation on the front line of rising disaster risk and emphasised that investment in resilience has never been more critical. The initiative, he noted, gives both countries the platform to share insights, coordinate on advocacy, and better target the investments needed to build a more resilient region.
“Extreme weather is no longer just a community issue, it is a fiscal one, and governments across Australia and New Zealand are confronting the same mounting costs to their budgets, their infrastructure, and their economies,” said ICA CEO Andrew Hall.
The comment suggests why this partnership matters for the insurance industry — and for brokers advising clients on risk in an environment where the cost of inaction is increasingly visible on government balance sheets. When disaster costs become a fiscal problem for governments, the pressure on both pricing and policy settings intensifies. Coordinated advocacy from two aligned industry bodies carries far more weight than either working alone.
Hall also framed the initiative as a push for the kind of structural reform that makes insurance work reach further. The partnership, he said, would ensure both industries are formally aligned in pushing for the policy and investment solutions that reduce risk, protect communities and keep insurance working for the people who need it most.
For the Australian and New Zealand broker markets, the implications are that this closer alignment of regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions could open the door to a more consistent operating environment for brokers active in both markets. More effective public-private risk reduction measures, meanwhile, could help address growing concerns around the affordability and availability of cover in high-hazard regions — a pressure point that is reshaping client conversations across property, business interruption, and natural catastrophe lines.
Insurance, as both bodies have consistently argued, remains one of the most effective mechanisms societies have for absorbing shocks, restoring economic activity after disasters, and pricing risk in ways that drive better decisions. This partnership puts both industries in a stronger position to make that case together.
