The cost of insurance and the behaviour of insurance companies looks set to become a major political issue in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Insurers have declared Alfred an ‘insurance catastrophe’, which means priority should be given to those making a cyclone-related claim.
When asked by a reporter in Lismore this week, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, ‘We’ll hold insurance companies to account’ while urging them to do ‘the right thing’ by making eligible payments immediately.
State intervention
Earlier this year, Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton was threatening the industry with state intervention if they didn’t lift their game, a position quickly undermined by his own shadow ministry.
Last month, Greens candidate for Richmond, Mandy Nolan, helped launch the Greens new national policy on insurance, which would require coal, gas, and oil companies to contribute more to the reinsurance pool, to help cover the cost of increasingly frequent climate-fuelled disasters.
She said, ‘The Northern Rivers has among the most costly and least affordable insurance premiums in the country, with widespread local outrage about the behaviour of companies since the catastrophic 2022 floods’.
Making polluters pay
‘The Greens have a clear and costed policy to make polluters pay, and reduce the cost of insurance for everyone else,’ says Nolan.
‘While people are struggling to pay massively increased bills, insurance companies made mammoth profits last year, and CEOs are walking away with major increases to their pay packets,’ says Ms Nolan.
‘The Greens say they plan a raft of insurance reforms, including removing stamp duty from house and car insurance, tougher rules forcing insurance companies to explain premium costs, one-off grants of up to $20,000 to all single-dwelling households in high-risk flood or cyclone zones to subsidise the costs of flood-proofing the house, and forcing polluters to pay’, she added.
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