Insuring the Future: Reimagining home insurance in a climate-impacted world

Average residential property insurance premiums in Aotearoa New Zealand, have increased by over 900% since 2000, more than four times the rate of general price inflation. The webinar draws upon a recent book by the Foundation’s Honorary Senior Fellow, Jonathan Boston: Insuring the Future: Reimagining Home Insurance in Aotearoa, to explore how Aotearoa New Zealand can maintain accessible and affordable residential property insurance in the face of climate-intensified risks.

Speakers:

Professor Jonathan Boston ONZM - Jonathan is an Emeritus Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include: climate change policy (both mitigation and adaptation); child poverty; governance (especially anticipatory governance); public management; tertiary education funding (especially research funding); and welfare state design. Jonathan has served at various times as the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and the Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He has also served in an expert advisory capacity to various public sector organisations.Jonathan has published widely on a range of matters including public management, social policy, climate change policy, tertiary education policy, and comparative government. He has served on the boards of a number of organisations including Oxfam NZ.

Professor Rebecca Bednarek - Professor Bednarek (School of Management, Te Herenga Waka--Victoria University of Wellington) is an international insurance expert, with particular expertise in the area of natural hazards insurance and reinsurance. She has published widely on such topics, including co-authorship of a major comparative study, Disaster Insurance Reimagined (Oxford University Press, 2023). The book focuses on the role of Protection Gap Entities (like our Natural Hazards Commission) which provided publicly-mandated insurance protection for natural hazard events, protection that would otherwise be unavailable to most property owners.

Kali Mercier -Kali is WSP Fellow and Deputy Director of the Helen Clark Foundation, and author of the Foundation’s 2024 report Premiums Under Pressure. Kali has an extensive background in law, policy, and international development, which has taken her to Berlin, London, Mexico City and Botswana. Before coming to the Helen Clark Foundation, Kali worked as Principal Advisor at the Ministry of Justice, Policy Director at the NZ Drug Foundation and as a human rights advocate for Amnesty UK and other charities overseas.

Murray Bruges- Murray is the Executive Director of the Helen Clark Foundation. Prior to the Foundation, Murray worked for Fonterra Co-operative Group in Auckland on resource management and environmental policy. From 2011 to 2020, Murray worked for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in a range of roles focused on trade, economic, tech and climate policy, including a three-year posting to the New Zealand Consulate General in Los Angeles. Earlier in his career, Murray worked for the Ministry of Fisheries on a range of policy issues. He lives in Auckland with his wife and son.