Australian update

In the third article of their bi-annual feature on Australia, Andrea Martignoni, Chris Peadon and Stephen Sander of Allens Arthur Robinson comment on the final report issued by the review panel examining the provisions of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (the ICA) and recent case law developments.

Review of the ICA

In Insurance Law Monthly (Volume 16: July (pp5–9) we noted that on 10 September 2003 the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Senator Helen Coonan, and the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Senator Ian Campbell, jointly announced that the Government would be undertaking a comprehensive review of the ICA and reported on the relevant proposals of the review panel. On 5 January 2005 the Government released the final report of the review panel which examines the provisions of the ICA other than s54. The review panel stated that it considered that the ICA is generally operating satisfactorily and to the benefit of both insurers and insureds and made a total of 38 separate recommendations. The Government intends to prepare a draft Bill to address the final report’s ‘main recommendations’, together with the amendments that the review panel suggested be made to s54. The draft Bill will be released for public comment prior to its introduction. We review below some of the most significant recommendations of the review panel.