00:02ASIC's report specifically on car insurance has found there's been a rise on average in
00:07premiums of 8% in a year and 42% over five years.
00:14Now ASIC makes the point that that rise alone of 8% is far above the inflation rate.
00:20Their report also finds that few people are challenging their policy renewal notices when
00:27they get them and ASIC has also found that people are really struggling with these policies when
00:32they receive them to understand why there might be increases in their premiums. It says that it's
00:38speaking to the industry itself and it hears from insurance companies why premiums are rising but
00:43it doesn't think that consumers are across this and that makes it confusing for them to challenge
00:48their policies when they get them. So I went to all five of the major insurers that are covered in
00:54ASIC's report and the industry association, the Insurance Council of Australia, it says that
01:00insurers are battling things like higher costs on car parts when they need to fix cars. It says
01:07they've been battling severe weather events. It's even blaming taxes on these higher premiums but
01:13clearly from ASIC's report there is room for premiums to be a little bit cheaper because ASIC found that
01:19the people who do bother to go back to their insurers and say why is my premium this price,
01:26ASIC found that one in three people then got a reduction. Here is Alan Kirkland, the commissioner
01:32for ASIC on this report. People are being kept in the dark and one of the key problems with that
01:38is
01:39it doesn't give people the information they need to work out whether they could make changes to bring
01:44down their premiums and it doesn't give them the information they need to decide whether they want to push
01:49back or indeed shop around and try and find a better deal. So the Insurance Council of Australia,
01:54it does say that it is working on clarification of those premiums and as I mentioned it is also
02:00defending the premium increases. So in the budget earlier this year there was a announcement for
02:08looking at clarifying and standardising terms that are used in insurance policies. Now that's not just
02:15for home and contents insurance but I have heard from the government that it could also cover things
02:20like car insurance covered in this ASIC report. Now we know that the Insurance Council of Australia
02:26and the industry overall is actually working with ASIC at the moment on a mandatory code of conduct
02:32that would be enforceable by the corporate regulator ASIC. So there is also that in the works.
02:38the insurance you go to look at the units that are used in the American Éxpress and is exactly like
02:38the insurance companies have been a good guess and so we can draw the difference in the
02:38understandably, if there is a key issue, the insurance companies have been out of three regions and
02:38for the insurance companies. So you know it's been able to deliver them in the kind of
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