Australia posts $1.3b in insured losses from major disasters

The report also pushes for the proposed $19.8b Flood Defence Fund.

Australia has recorded the second-highest losses from extreme weather amongst developed countries over the past 45 years, according to new data from the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).

In the past year alone, insured losses from three major events reached almost $1.32b (A$2b) — the North Queensland floods $190.7m (A$289m), Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred $943.8m (A$1.43b), and the Mid North Coast and Hunter floods $163.7m (A$248m).

The figures, drawn from Munich Re’s NatCatSERVICE global database and published in the ICA’s 2024–25 Insurance

Catastrophe Resilience Report, compare insured and total economic losses per capita across six developed nations. Australia has consistently ranked behind the United States, falling to third only in the past five years after two major disasters in New Zealand.

Since 1980, inflation-adjusted losses from floods, bushfires, storms, and extreme cold have risen steadily in Australia, France, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the US.

The ICA said Australia’s high ranking reflects its exposure to natural hazards and population growth in disaster-prone areas, alongside infrastructure that has not kept pace with climate risks.

The report supports stronger adaptation measures following the Federal Government’s Climate Risk Assessment, including improved land-use planning, building standards, and a proposed $19.8b (A$30b) Flood Defence Fund to protect vulnerable communities.

“Each decade is costlier than the last, with insufficient investment in resilience leaving Australians to shoulder an outsized economic burden,” ICA CEO Andrew Hall said.

($1.00 = A$1.51)