Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (135 of 2020)

Schedule 2   Insurer avoidance of life insurance contracts, and duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation

Part 2   Duty to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation

Insurance Contracts Act 1984

37   Application of amendments

(1) The amendments made by this Part apply to contracts of insurance, other than contracts of life insurance, that are entered into on or after 5 October 2021.

(2) Subject to subitem (3), the amendments made by this Part apply to contracts of life insurance that are entered into on or after 5 October 2021 (not including contracts of life insurance entered into before that day and extended, varied or reinstated on or after that day as mentioned in paragraph 11(9)(a) or (c) of the Insurance Contracts Act 1984).

(3) If:

(a) subitem (2) does not apply to a contract of life insurance; and

(b) on or after 5 October 2021, the contract is varied to:

(i) increase a sum insured under the contract in respect of one or more of the life insureds; or

(ii) provide one or more additional kinds of insurance cover; and

(c) the variation was not an automatic variation but was required to be expressly agreed between the insurer and the insured before the contract was varied;

then:

(d) the contract is treated, to the extent of the variation, as if it had been entered into on or after 5 October 2021; and

(e) the amendments made by this Part apply to the contract to the extent of the variation.

(4) Despite anything else in this item, the amendments made by this Part apply, on and after the commencement of this item, to a contract of insurance that is entered into on or after that commencement if the insurer gives the insured written notice before the contract is entered into that the contract is a consumer insurance contract.