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Households living in areas where the risk of flooding looms large have endured up to a 50 per cent surge in insurance premiums.

Analysis from the Actuaries Institute has illustrated the severity of Australia's insurance affordability crisis, with the median home premium experiencing its biggest jump in two decades.

In the 12 months to March, home insurance premiums surged 28 per cent.

Insurers have been pushing up prices for a few reasons - the cost of building work has surged because of supply chain shortages and climate change is fuelling more frequent natural disasters and jacking up reinsurance costs.

Costs have been rising for everyone but covering the risk of floods has become particularly expensive, with low-income households most likely to be living in these areas and shouldering the burden.

Finity Consulting actuary Sharanjit Paddam said insurance would get less affordable because of climate change and leave more households with no other choice but to go without.

"Without insurance, households will struggle to recover from disasters and governments, taxpayers, charities and many informal means of support will be left to assist," Mr Paddam warned.

He said households would unlikely be able to make a full economic recovery without it.

The issue of insurance affordability is on the federal government's radar, with Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones launching an investigation into the matter in the context of devastating floods in 2022.

Consumer group CHOICE last week released a list of recommendations to protect customers at risk of being priced out of insurance entirely.

The actuaries body weighed in with its own suggestions to the escalating problem, including replacing insurance taxes with fairer and more efficient methods of raising revenue.

The risk experts also recommended targeted, means-tested subsidies in recognition that low income households are likely to be hardest hit.

An insurance or reinsurance pool for riverine flooding could also be considered.

"If the government was to give consideration to an insurance pool, any future model would need to consider the fact that flood risk is highly localised in Australia among a relatively small number of households with significant exposure," Swiss Re actuary Evelyn Chow said.

The actuaries body also outlined a range of risk reduction ideas, including setting up a flood and disaster risk rating system to integrate into building codes.

Ms Chow said risk reduction was the only way to sustainably address affordability problems in a changing climate.

© AAP 2023

Thousands of New Zealanders have signed up to become Australian citizens, weeks after a new pathway to citizenship opened up.

New figures have shown more than 15,000 New Zealanders have started the process for Australian citizenship since changes came into effect at the start of July.

Under the changes, agreed to by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins earlier this year, Kiwis who had been living in Australia for at least four years on a special category visa could apply for citizenship.

Previously, New Zealanders in Australia on the special category visa would be able to stay in the country but would be limited in receiving government payments and would have to first apply for permanent residency before becoming citizens.

Under the changes, New Zealanders on the special category visa looking to become citizens can bypass the permanent residency step.

Since July, about half of all citizenship applications have been from New Zealanders.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the changes had strengthened the bond between the two countries.

He said 15,000 "of our closest friends" had applied to become Aussies in the 40 days since the change came into effect.

"The government's commonsense change has created a pathway to citizenship for so many who have been living and working in Australia for years and contributing to our local communities," he said.

Almost 500 of the 15,000 who have started the citizenship process had already passed the citizenship test.

© AAP 2023

Australia would grind to a halt without them but essential workers can barely afford to put a roof over their heads.

Early childhood educators, nurses and aged care workers in full-time work can only afford as little as one in 100 rentals, according to a survey released on Monday.

The figures show Australia's housing affordability crisis is getting even worse ahead of a national cabinet meeting on Wednesday when rental stress will be a key discussion point for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state and territory leaders.

Kasy Chambers, executive director of Anglicare Australia which conducted the snapshot, says the numbers help explain why essential industries are facing labour shortages, as workers cannot afford to live in areas where the shortfall is the worst.

"Virtually no part of Australia is affordable for aged care workers, early childhood educators, cleaners, nurses and many other essential workers we rely on," she said.

"They cannot afford to live in their own communities."

The snapshot, taken on March 17, looked at 45,895 rental listings across the country and calculated how many were available for less than 30 per cent of the award rate for 16 categories of essential workers.

It found early childhood educators, hospitality workers and meat packers could only afford 0.9 per cent of listings available across Australia that weekend.

Aged care workers could afford 1.1 per cent of rentals, nurses 1.5 per cent and ambulance drivers 2.4 per cent.

Even in regional Australia, where prices have historically provided respite from the turbocharged urban centres, homes were unaffordable on the whole unless they were so remote jobs were not widely available.

Ms Chambers says the private housing market has failed those on low incomes, with rental vacancies at a record low 0.8 per cent despite a record high number of homes built over the last 10 years.

"The best way to make rentals more affordable is to build social and affordable homes," she said.

"And we need tax reform to put people in need of homes, not investors, at the centre of our system."

Mr Albanese's $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund remains stalled in the Senate, but the Greens have promised to help pass the legislation if the government offered the states and territories money to cap rents and offer greater rights for tenants.

© AAP 2023