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We refer to the Royal Commission’s Background Paper 14: General Insurance (Background Paper) and make the following comments. We note that the Background Paper reflects the views of the authors and not the Commission. Our comments focus on key issues for consumers raised by the authors, in particular:

• Consumer protections available to people dealing with insurers,
• The role of intermediaries in selling insurance,
• The operation of the duty of utmost good faith and the need for an unfair contract terms regime, and
• Claims handling and dispute resolution.

Our comments are based on casework and research undertaken by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) and recent law reform developments and proposals. We note that the Background Paper focuses substantially on commercial insurance. Our focus and expertise are in domestic insurance and issues faced by individual consumers.

Read the full submission here [PDF].