Media Release

VICTORIAN COMMUNITY groups that have been affected by the continued increase in cost of public liability insurance are being encouraged to take part in a survey aimed at documenting the current situation across the entire community sector.

The survey has been established to determine:

• The extent to which community groups may have overlapping or multiple insurance cover
• The extent to which legal reforms have led to changes to access and affordability of public liability
• The extent to which community group activities have been curtailed or abandoned in order to access public liability insurance

The new survey, being conducted by www.ourcommunity.com.au the national resource for 700,000 community, education and non-profit groups, comes three years after the public liability crisis created havoc for community groups.

Since then a number of legislative reforms have taken place and Dr Rhonda Galbally AO, CEO of ourcommunity.com.au said the survey was timely to see how the reforms had altered community groups' access and affordability of insurance.

The online survey can be found at www.ourcommunity.com.au/2005insurancesurvey. People wanting hard copies of the survey can call (03) 9320 6810. Responses are required ASAP and no later than 25 March 2005 to enable data to be collected and provided as an input into insurance reforms.

Dr Galbally said the 2002 survey had demonstrated that as time to see if that risk profile had changed or whether it should be leading to a fairer premium structure.

"While more groups have been able to find insurance cover, we still hear anecdotal stories of groups curtailing or ceasing part or all of their activities because insurers refuse to cover some activities. This survey will hopefully draw a clearer picture of the present situation," Dr Galbally said.

"At the same time we need to identify how community groups undertake activities on local, State or Federal government properties and whether groups are in fact paying public liability insurance for activities that are already covered."

"Since the legislative reforms we have seen the major insurers declare massive profits but are yet to witness the promised falls in premium prices. The response from community groups, particularly those that have had problems accessing insurance because of their activities, will hopefully provide the hard evidence for insurers to review their pricing structure."

Media information: Call Brian Walsh on (03) 9320 6813.