Insurance costs in the ACT
28 March 2025
The ALA has made a submission to the ACT Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Economics, Industry and Recreation (‘Committee’) as part of the Committee’s inquiry into insurance costs in the ACT, which is looking at a range of matters including:
- “the significantly rising costs of insurance premiums, particularly for local businesses and community organisations”;
- “trends in public liability claims, litigation behaviour and insurance premiums”; and
- “causes and effects of jurisdictional differences in insurance costs between the ACT and other states and territories, particularly for workers’ compensation insurance”.
The ALA’s submission focuses largely on the workers compensation scheme in the ACT, and the ALA has reiterated to the Committee that – based on actuarial data plus the direct experiences of our members and their clients – there is no crisis in the ACT’s workers compensation scheme.
We have also emphasised that any reduction in entitlements for injured workers under the ACT’s workers compensation scheme would place more pressure on the ACT’s healthcare system, necessitating the ACT Government to find more money for that system or to reduce the amount of care provided.
Our submission also explores a number of other matters, including best practice design for workers compensation schemes, how premiums are set, what alternatives have been suggested by others for the ACT’s workers compensation scheme (examples include the NSW workers compensation scheme and the Comcare scheme), and ‘litigation behaviour’ in public liability claims.
The Committee released its Final Report in September 2025. Notably, the Committee has recommended introducing caps on personal injury claims for the purposes of reducing premiums.
ALA submission
Final Report (September 2025)