Life insurers in Australia have been told they may build product features that limit, though not eliminate, cover for mental health conditions in standard form policies, under the final report of the independent review of the Life Insurance Code of Practice released on June 30, 2026. Reviewer Peter Kell reached the position after commissioning legal advice on the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, on what the review itself describes as the most contested issue among its 85 recommendations.
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This is not a settled matter for all parties. The Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC) and the Justice and Equity Centre (JEC), formerly the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, told the review it is “highly unlikely that life insurers are able to use standard forms to discriminate on the basis of mental health issues,” pressing for greater weight to be placed on an individual’s particular circumstances than other submissions had assumed. Kell’s report does not resolve that disagreement; it states the Walsh advice was sought to inform the recommendations rather than to settle the underlying legal question definitively.
