Prime Minister Julia Gilliard rebuked the gutless behavior of insurance companies for not attending a meeting with the victims of the Queensland flood victims in Ipswich yesterday.

Only one representative of the Insurance Council of Australia, Rob Whelan, turned up in the meeting which was filled by various complaints about the unprofessional performance of insurance companies.

Last month, Assistant Federal Treasurer Bill Shorten labeled some insurance companies as “scallywags”.

He asserted that QBE, CGU, RACQ, Allianz, NRMA and CHU face their customers, but attempts to make an agreement on “ground rules” for yesterday’s meeting failed.

In one of the discussions, a woman related how she missed out on insurance because of an argument over the definition of a natural disaster when a dam opened at full capacity and caused flood that wrecked their homes.

Whelan, explained in return, "85 per cent of claims were accepted by insurance companies." He added that besides the different experiences of people represented in the meeting, the customers ought to check to whether they have had the right policies or have been with the companies that cover such incidents.

Consequently, Mr Shorten says the term "flood" will be standardized in plain English terms in insurance contracts to avoid problems when consumers ask for claims.

Early this morning, Gillard said in an interview the government is working hard to fix this problem and she had pieces of evidence showing insurance claims callously handled by the criticized insurance companies.

Gillard furthered, “we are using the pressure of government to 'name and shame' insurance companies who do the wrong thing.”