Now lawHealth & Care Introduced in the House of Representatives, 26 Nov 2025

Life insurers can no longer use your genetic tests

This law bans life insurers from asking about or using gene tests when they decide whether to cover you and what to charge. It also eases licence rules for overseas money firms. It changes how Australia pays into world banks that help poor countries. And it drops a planned yearly sign-up for money advisers.

Official name: Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance and Other Measures) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• People thinking about a genetic test: You can get tested, or join medical research, and it will not affect your life insurance.
• Families with a known genetic condition: Insurers cannot use the fact that a relative was tested or what their results showed.
• Life insurers: They face fines if they ask for or use protected gene facts.
• Overseas banks and fund managers: Some can serve big and expert investors in Australia without an Australian licence.
• Financial advisers: They avoid a yearly sign-up that was due to start on 1 July 2026.

Insurers could use genetic tests

Life insurance pays out if you die or get very sick or disabled. Before insurers offer cover, they check your health to judge your risk. This is called underwriting.

Until now, insurers could ask for gene test results and use them. A gene test looks at your DNA. It can show if you have a higher chance of getting a disease, such as some cancers.

People told the government they were skipping tests that could save their lives. Some stayed out of medical research. They were afraid of losing insurance.

In 2019, the insurers put a partial pause on using tests. A 2023 study by Monash University, a big Melbourne university, found it left people confused.

In September 2024, the government said it would bring in a total ban. New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States have rules like this too.

Genetic results banned

Insurers make choices about life insurance. They choose whether to offer cover, whether to refuse it, and what price and terms to set. None of these choices can rest on a check that asked for or used protected gene facts.

Protected gene facts cover a few things. They cover whether you or a blood relative had a gene test. They cover whether you plan to have one or were told to have one. They also cover the results. Facts from medical research are always protected.

Insurers cannot find a way around the ban either. Say an insurer asks for your full medical file, and it has test results in it. That counts as asking for gene facts. So does asking you to get a test.

Say your mother carries a gene linked to breast cancer. Your test shows you carry it too. An insurer cannot ask about either test. It cannot charge you more because of them.

What insurers can still use

Insurers can still use facts about a disease a doctor has actually found. That can be in you or in a blood relative. This is true even if a gene test helped the doctor find it.

They can use the name of the disease and how it usually grows. They can use the care you have had or will get. They cannot use the gene test results themselves.

A higher gene risk of a disease is not the same as having the disease. So a gene that raises your cancer risk stays protected. That changes only if a doctor finds cancer.

Medicine keeps changing. So the government can write detailed rules, without a new vote, on whether a health problem counts as a disease.

Sharing a good result

There is one let-off from the rule. You can choose to give an insurer a gene result. The insurer must not have asked for it. You must agree in writing.

The insurer can only use it to give you a better deal. It can never use it to hurt you or anyone else on the policy.

Say a test shows you do not carry a gene that runs in your family. You could share it to try to get a lower price.

You must usually tell an insurer important facts about your health. Leaving out gene facts does not break that duty.

Penalties and reviews

An insurer that breaks the ban commits a crime. It can be found guilty even if it did not mean to break the law. The fine is up to 60 penalty units, or 300 for a company. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used to work out fines.

A court can also order a fine of 5,000 penalty units, and more for companies.

The company and finance watchdog will watch for rule-breaking and make insurers follow the ban. Its full name is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The ban must be reviewed every five years. The report must go to Parliament.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 changes too. That is the national law against unfair treatment of people with disability. It is now against the law to refuse life insurance, or offer worse terms, because of protected gene facts.

The ban covers choices made from its start date. Some policies were taken out before then. For those, it only covers changes to the policy, such as making it last longer.

Overseas finance firm licences

Anyone running a money services business in Australia usually needs a licence. It is called an Australian financial services licence. The company and finance watchdog hands it out.

Three let-offs will start 12 months after the bill became law. First, firms based overseas can serve expert investors, such as big funds, with no licence.

Second, firms checked by a similar watchdog overseas can serve big or rich investors. Third, firms that buy and sell certain share deals all day to keep a market going also get a let-off.

Firms that use these let-offs must tell the watchdog. They must follow some rules, such as acting honestly and fairly.

A fourth change helps firms watched by a similar body overseas. When they apply for an Australian licence, they can skip a test of whether they are fit to hold one.

The watchdog has warned in the past that it cannot punish an overseas firm with no licence as it would a licensed one. It would usually rely on the watchdog overseas.

Payments to development banks

Australia is a member of several world banks owned by many countries. They lend to poorer countries to fight poverty and grow their economies.

Two examples are the Asian Development Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The second is part of the World Bank.

The law gives lasting approval to pay each bank. So the government does not need a new law each year. It covers what Australia owes under deals with each bank. There is no dollar limit.

It backs two recent promises. Australia will buy $150 million (US dollars) of hybrid capital from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development over five years. Hybrid capital is a mix of a loan and a share in the bank.

Australia will also back up to $200 million (US dollars) of Asian Development Bank climate loans over 25 years. If a borrower cannot pay, Australia would cover it.

Senior staff at Treasury, the government's money department, can now handle normal payments. Nine old laws are scrapped. These changes do not cover the International Monetary Fund, because its dealings are more complex. That fund is a world body that lends to countries in money trouble.

No yearly adviser sign-up

The Hayne Royal Commission was a big public investigation into bad behaviour by banks. After it, a 2021 law set up two stages for signing up money advisers. In Stage 1, the businesses that hire advisers must sign them up with the watchdog.

Stage 2 would have made every adviser sign themselves up every year from 1 July 2026. It was tied to a new government list system that has since been scrapped.

This law cancels Stage 2. The government says Stage 1 is enough. A panel of experts run by the watchdog can already ban advisers or stop them working for a time.

Start date

The bill went to the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, on 26 November 2025. It passed there on 25 March 2026. The Senate, the other house of Parliament, passed it on 1 April 2026.

The Governor-General is the King's representative. He signed it into law on 8 April 2026. It became Act No. 35 of 2026.

The gene test ban starts six months later, on 8 October 2026. The world bank changes started the next day. Stage 2 adviser sign-up was cancelled from 30 June 2026. The overseas firm let-offs start 12 months after the bill became law.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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