Insurance Inquiry (Deprioritised)
Parliamentary inquiry into the Australian insurance sector is scheduled with a final report due 27 October 2026. This topic is flagged as deprioritised in strategic planning and should not consume resources during the current turnaround period.
Status
Primary inquiry: Federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services — Small Business Insurance. Report due 27 October 2026.
Strategic priority: DEPRIORITISED (operational focus on revenue survival). However, the Insure Good Times campaign is active and positioning Pride as the national case study.
Inquiry Landscape (Updated April 2026)
| Inquiry | Status | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Vic Legislative Council — Cultural & Creative Industries | Final report June 2025 | 11 recs on arts funding; insurance not specifically addressed |
| Vic Parliament Research Paper (“No dancing whilst drinking”) | Published May 2025 | Documented crisis comprehensively; cited Pride’s 2,506% increase |
| Federal House of Reps — Live Music Inquiry | Report March 2025 | Rec 10: research mutual/self-insurance model. Government “noted” — did not commit to underwriting |
| Federal Joint Committee — Small Business Insurance | Ongoing; report due 27 Oct 2026 | Primary current avenue for reform; submissions closed 6 Mar 2026 |
| ICA civil liability reform report | Published October 2025 | Calls on all states to reform tort laws; describes crisis as structural market failure |
Victorian Government: Committed 2024 to “review of insurance arrangements for creative spaces” — no public outcome. VMIA talks with Music Victoria since April 2024 produced no scheme. 2025–26 State Budget ($552.2M creative industries) included no insurance relief. Creative State 2028 (launched December 2025) does not address insurance reform.
No Wrongs Act reform: No amendments to the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic) relating to civil liability caps or PL reform for entertainment venues have been introduced as of April 2026.
Institutional Positions
ICA (Insurance Council of Australia): March 2026 parliamentary submission formally documented premiums rising from “$10k–$20k to $140k–$160k” for live music venues. Calls for civil liability tort reform as the structural fix.
ASBFEO (Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman): March 2026 submission endorsed DMF (Discretionary Mutual Fund) concept. Previously recommended federal seed funding for AALARA DMF in 2021 (Morrison government rejected 2022).
Why Deprioritised
Current strategic focus is on revenue survival ($25k/week threshold), Saturday trading recovery, licence reclassification, and kitchen implementation. The inquiry is a longer-term regulatory monitoring item. However, the Insure Good Times campaign is active under Mat’s leadership and requires no operational resource from Shae.
Next Inflection Point
27 October 2026 — federal committee report. If the committee recommends a government-backed DMF or ARPC expansion with seed capital, structural relief could materialise by 2027–2028. If it does not, the sector faces continued market failure with no intervention on the horizon.
Deprioritised per project direction — insurance and legal handled separately. Campaign activity tracked under Insure Good Times.