Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Australia’s Port Hedland Iron Shipping Port Spared Worst of Cyclone Rusty
Feb 27 2013 // A powerful cyclone that brought half the world’s seaborne-traded iron ore to a halt spared Australia’s Port Hedland shipping hub on Wednesday, making landfall about 120 km (75 miles) to the east. Cyclone Rusty,...
Australia’s QBE Profits Reduced by Higher Claims; Cuts Dividend
Feb 26 2013 // QBE Insurance, Australia’s biggest insurer, posted a lower-than-expected 8 percent rise in full-year net profit due to high claims for accidents and adverse U.S. weather, prompting it to slash its dividend and...
Australia’s Main Iron Ore Port Braces for Direct Tropical Cyclone Hit
Feb 26 2013 // A powerful tropical cyclone is on course for a “direct hit” on Australia’s Port Hedland, which handles a fifth of the world’s seaborne-traded iron ore, with evacuations starting on Tuesday ahead of...
Report Criticizes Insurance Tech Firm Ebix’s Financials; Firm Refutes Allegations
Feb 22 2013 // Ebix Inc., a major provider of software and e-commerce products for the insurance industry, saw its stock price fall more than 25 percent Thursday, Feb. 21, after a research report critical of Ebix’s financial...
Insurance Australia Group Posts US$ 840 Million Half Year Insurance Profit
Feb 22 2013 // Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) announced an insurance profit of A$815 million [US$840 million] for the half-year ended 31 December 2012, compared to A$276 million [US$284.6 million], for the first half of 2012....
IAG Updates Loss Estimates from Australia’s Floods and Fires
Feb 11 2013 // Insurance Australia Group’s Australia Direct and CGU businesses announced that they have “so far received over 13,700 claims arising from ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald, with the cost to the Group expected to be in...
Lockton Expands Australia Operation with Melbourne Broker Acquisition
Feb 8 2013 // Lockton announced that it has expanded its operations on Australia’s East Coast with the acquisition of niche insurance brokerage firm Strategic Insurance & Risk Solutions, owned by insurance industry leader...
Australia, Indonesia Floods Highlight Aon Benfield’s January Cat Report
Feb 8 2013 // In its latest monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, focuses on the torrential monsoonal rains, which caused severe flooding...
AIR Analyzes Australian Floods
Jan 30 2013 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, the flooding that has hit parts of eastern Australia has forced the evacuation of thousands of residents. AIR explained that the “heavy precipitation over the...
Massive Floods Hit Queensland, New So. Wales; 4 Dead, Thousands Evacuated
Jan 29 2013 // Massive summer floods killed four people and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes across two Australian states on Tuesday, disrupting air and rail travel and coal production. A deluge fed by ex-tropical...
Australian Court Rules Workers’ Comp Covers Sex Mishap
Dec 20 2012 // An Australian court has ruled that a bureaucrat who was injured while having sex on a business trip is eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. The Full Bench of the Federal Court ruled Dec. 13 in favor of the...
Insurance Australia Group Selling All UK Operations
Dec 14 2012 // Insurance Australia Group Limited has announced the sale of all its UK operations, following the strategic review process which it undertook in May 2012. IAG said it expects to carry out the sale in two separate...
Services Trade Talks Begin as WTO Seeks Way out of Stalemate
Oct 9 2012 // Countries representing 70 percent of the global economy are set to negotiate lower barriers to trade in services after agreeing the structure of a deal, Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson said in an interview. The...
Former QBE CEO O’Halloran to Join Australia Broker Steadfast Group
Oct 9 2012 // QBE’s former CEO Frank O’Halloran’s retirement didn’t last long. Following discussions with the company he headed until last August, it’s been agreed that any anti-competition clause following...
Finaccord Analyzes Prof. Indemnity Insurance in Australia, Canada, So. Africa
Oct 3 2012 // New research, conducted by market research consultants Finaccord, reveals that “competition among underwriters of professional indemnity insurance in Australia and Canada is at least as strong as in Europe’s...
Best Affirms QBE Insurance Group ‘A’ Ratings; Outlook Stable
Oct 1 2012 // A.M. Best Europe – Rating Services Limited has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a+” of UK-based QBE Insurance (Europe)...
Swiss Re’s Chief Economist on the State of the Global Economy
Sep 14 2012 // “The European debt crisis is affecting the global economy, definitely,” said Kurt Karl, Swiss Re’s chief economist in an interview at the recent Reinsurance Rendezvous in Monte Carlo. He did indicate that...
Fitch Notes Reinsurers More Risk-Focused For More Asian Catastrophes
Aug 23 2012 // Fitch Ratings has issued a statement which points out that the “spate of Asia-Pacific catastrophes in the past two years have prompted reinsurers to take stock of their existing portfolio and re-evaluate their...
El Nino Seen Having ‘Modest Impact’ on Australia
Aug 21 2012 // An emerging El Nino weather pattern is likely to have only a modest impact on crops and mining in Australia and could benefit sugar cane growers in Queensland, a senior forecaster said. Drier conditions have already...
AIR Expands Suite of Catastrophe Models for Australia
Jul 24 2012 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced the expansion of its suite of catastrophe models for Australia “with the release of the industry’s first probabilistic bushfire model and updated tropical...
