An insurance inquiry has found widespread failure when it comes to the availability and affordability of essential small business insurance products.

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has made 15 recommendations to address what she describes as market failure.

Kate Carnell told Oliver Peterson some businesses are on the brink of collapse because they can’t get necessary insurance like public liability cover.

“We started to gets lots of cases before COVID but now it’s really escalated in the last eight months.

“We’re seeing lots of small businesses that can’t get the [insurance] products they need and they’re faced with a scenario of having to close.”

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