Game, Set, Grand Slam: Straight-Sets Victory for Budget Direct in Australia's Insurer Of The Year Awards

BRISBANE, Australia, Feb. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- In a first for the Australian Insurance sector, a single insurer has achieved the Insurance Grand Slam, with Budget Direct simultaneously being crowned Australian Insurer Of The Year, by four of Australia's respected and independent consumer advocates: Canstar, Money Magazine, Finder, and WeMoney, confirming Budget Direct as the independent experts' choice as, Australian Insurer Of The Year.

Canstar compared Car and Home Insurance from major brands: AAMI, Bingle, GIO, Suncorp Insurance, Budget Direct, NRMA Insurance, QBE Insurance and Youi, and for an unprecedented fifth year in a row, declared Budget Direct the 2026 winner of the Canstar Insurer Of The Year award.

Canstar noted that, "Budget Direct performed consistently well in both Car and Home & Contents Insurance. It continues to provide outstanding value to consumers with competitive pricing and a high level of cover. Budget Direct achieved market-leading performance for Car Insurance in multiple states and a strong performance in Home & Contents Package profiles."

When Money Magazine considered who to crown their most recent Insurer Of The Year in 2025, they "took into consideration how competitive the Home & Contents and Car Insurance premium rates were, as well as holistic factors such as corporate strength, breadth of what they deliver and how they support customers, customer engagement and reliability in paying claims." For a record ninth year in a row, Money Magazine selected Budget Direct.

In selecting Budget Direct as WeMoney's 2025 Insurer Of The Year, WeMoney's Founder & CEO, Dan Jovevski said, "These awards spotlight the insurers who are truly putting Australians first by delivering exceptional value, service, and digital innovation."

Finder, which looked across the breadth of Australian Car and Home insurance providers when selected Budget Direct as their 2026 winner said, "Budget Direct scooped the Insurer Of The Year crown with a strong performance across multiple categories for pricing, features and customer service."

Budget Direct Unprecedented Consecutive Run As Australian Insurer Of The Year
Award Title	Industry Expert	Year(s) Won
Insurer Of The Year	Canstar	2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022
Insurer Of The Year	Finder	2026
Insurer Of The Year	Money Magazine	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
Insurer Of The Year	WeMoney	2025

Budget Direct Unprecedented Consecutive Run As Australian Insurer Of The Year

Award Title

Industry
Expert

Year(s) Won

Insurer Of The Year

Canstar

2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022

Insurer Of The Year

Finder

2026

Insurer Of The Year

Money
Magazine

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

Insurer Of The Year

WeMoney

2025

No other provider has concurrently held four Insurer Of The Year awards. 

Jonathan Kerr, Chief Growth Officer said securing the industry's first-ever grand slam was a significant moment for everyone at Budget Direct.

"This level of recognition from four of the leading independent consumer advocate groups, is a tremendous honour and a direct testament to our daily focus on delivering outstanding value to our customers through innovation, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction," said Kerr.

"To anyone asking who offers the best insurance in Australia, these industry experts all agreed. The answer is Budget Direct."

DISCLAIMER

Insurance (excluding Pet, Life & Travel Insurance) is issued by Auto & General Insurance Company Limited (ABN 42 111 586 353, AFSL 285571) (AGIC) and arranged by Auto & General Services Pty Ltd (ABN 61 003 617 909, AFSL 241411) (AGS) PO Box 342, Toowong QLD 4066.

Budget Direct Pet Insurance is issued by AGIC, administered by Pet Health Insurance Services Pty Ltd (ABN 59 638 910 675) as Authorised Representative (AR no. 1282153) of AGIC and promoted by AGS.

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

Game, Set, Grand Slam: Straight-Sets Victory for Budget Direct in Australia's Insurer Of The Year Awards

SINGAPORE, May 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- WisPaper, an AI-powered academic research platform, today highlighted how AI systems are beginning to influence the earliest stages of scientific exploration. As research fields become increasingly interdisciplinary and publication volumes continue to expand, researchers are placing greater emphasis on tools that can help them navigate unfamiliar domains and identify relevant directions more efficiently.

The Growing Complexity of Research Discovery

Early-stage research often involves exploring broad questions, identifying emerging themes, and understanding how ideas connect across multiple disciplines. This process can require extensive reading, repeated searching, and manual comparison of papers before researchers develop a clear view of a field.

Traditional academic search systems are effective at retrieving documents, but researchers frequently face challenges when trying to explore conceptual relationships, evolving terminology, or loosely connected areas of study.

As scientific knowledge grows more fragmented and specialized, the operational cost of exploration is also increasing.

AI-Assisted Topic Exploration

WisPaper is designed to support literature analysis and research discovery through AI-assisted retrieval and semantic understanding workflows. Its Scholar Agent allows users to search using natural-language research questions and supports filtering based on research intent rather than keyword matching alone.

The platform also includes tools for paper organization, citation management, annotations, and AI-powered feeds that track developments related to selected research interests.

By combining retrieval, filtering, and ongoing literature monitoring within a unified workflow, the system is intended to help researchers move more efficiently through the exploratory phase of research.

Supporting Faster Knowledge Navigation

As AI research systems continue to evolve, many platforms are focusing less on simple document access and more on helping researchers interpret and organize information at scale.

WisPaper reflects this broader transition by emphasizing semantic discovery and workflow continuity during early-stage scientific investigation.

In increasingly complex research environments, reducing the friction involved in finding and evaluating relevant knowledge may play an important role in how researchers generate new questions and explore emerging areas of inquiry.

About WisPaper
WisPaper is an AI-powered academic research agent designed as a full-stack research accelerator. It supports literature retrieval, analysis, experiment design, execution, and paper writing within a unified workflow, helping researchers manage complex scientific tasks more efficiently across disciplines. For more information, visit https://wispaper.ai/?utm_source=news.

** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **

WisPaper Examines How AI Is Changing Early-Stage Scientific Exploration