Today, Financial Counselling Victoria is proud to have worked alongside Finity, Financial Rights Legal Centre, Resilient Building Council, ARC Justice and Monash University to launch the Housing Resilience Action Plan 2030. The Plan responds to a rapidly worsening problem: growing numbers of Australian households, particularly those living in older “legacy homes” in high‑risk areas, are unable to access affordable home insurance. As climate risks intensify and premiums rise, many households are left underinsured or uninsured, exposing them to severe financial shock when disasters occur. This is not a failure of individual households, but a system‑wide problem requiring coordinated, national action.
The Action Plan brings together solutions developed across government, insurance, banking, academia and the community sector to answer a pressing question: what must be done now to support households living in high‑risk, low‑resilience homes? Its focus is deliberately practical and targeted. Rather than relying on one‑off disaster relief or leaving households to navigate risk alone, the Plan proposes a fair and cost‑effective framework that links physical improvements to homes with improved insurance affordability. Central to this approach is the recognition that while some households may ultimately need support to relocate, many legacy homes can be made safer and more insurable with the right information, advice and financial pathways in place.
Financial counselling sits at the heart of this work. The report highlights the urgent need for independent, trusted, place‑based advice to help households understand climate risk, weigh up resilience options and navigate insurance and finance systems that are often complex and opaque. Financial counsellors and community legal services are already seeing the impacts of rising premiums, insurance withdrawal and unexplained price shocks, particularly in regional areas. The Action Plan recognises that without tailored advice and strong consumer protections, greater risk disclosure alone can increase stress, deepen hardship and worsen inequality rather than empower households to act.
The Housing Resilience Action Plan 2030 also calls out the broader community impacts of insurance unaffordability. As reported by the ABC today, insurance stress has increased sharply in recent years, with around 1.6 million households now spending more than four weeks’ gross income on home insurance each year, and many others going without cover altogether. Community legal centres and financial counsellors are reporting rising anxiety, housing insecurity and financial distress, particularly in flood‑ and bushfire‑prone regions. Without action, entire communities risk becoming trapped in a cycle of increasing risk, falling property values and declining services.
Following the release of the Action Plan, the partners are calling on the Federal Government to convene a forum within the next six months to strike a National Housing Resilience Accord. The Accord would bring governments, insurers, banks and the community sector together to coordinate action and commit to shared solutions, including the rollout of a National Risk and Resilience Rating System and investment in local advice services. The message is clear: piecemeal reforms will not fix this problem. A system‑wide challenge demands system‑wide leadership, and now is the time to act.