Steven Miles, David Crisafulli rule out state-owned insurer

There will be no return to the days of the SGIO, Queensland’s beloved state-owned insurance company, regardless of who wins Saturday’s election. Here’s why both leaders think it’s a bad idea.

Lifesavers rescuing people from flood waters in Toowong in 2022. Insurance premiums have soared since then. Picture: Josh Woning

Both the premier and Opposition Leader have ruled out any chance of revisiting the Joh-era days of the State Government Insurance Office, saying a state-owned insurer is not the answer to soaring premiums.

LNP Leader David Crisafulli said he had a plan to drive down home insurance in the form of his youth crime crackdown.

“What we will do is make sure that we deal with youth crime, which will drive down your insurance premiums,’’ he said.

“We’ll also be the first government in a long, long time to build flood mitigation, which will also lower your premiums.

“And (policies will drop) if you couple that with delivering the kind of environment where people can drive safely to work, get to where you need to be, know that your vehicle is going to be there when you wake up in the morning.’’

Queensland councils, which have spent up big in recent years on flood mitigation, have argued private insurers needed to take those efforts into account in their home insurance calculations.

Both leaders discussed their insurance plans in response to a question from a Point Vernon reader of The Courier-Mail, Brian Hermann, who asked: “As insurance premiums are now astronomical, would your party agree to reinstate a government owned insurance company?’’.

Premier Steven Miles said it was a great question and something he had also asked his advisers.

But he had been told prices were controlled by reinsurers, limiting the effectiveness of a publicly-owned company.

“I’m a supporter of public ownership, where that can demonstrate benefits. We know that it has with power generation, we know that it has with transmission’’ he said.

“It’s why I’ve proposed building state-owned petrol stations as well as state-owned bulk billing GP clinics.

“The advice, though, consistently comes back that a state-owned insurer would still need to seek reinsurance on the same global reinsurance market (as private operators such as the RACQ and Suncorp).

“Because of that, and because that’s what’s driven up costs, it is unlikely to deliver the kind of cost benefits that we would like to see.

“That’s why we’ve continued to encourage the Australian government to do more when it comes to regulating insurance to ensure (policy costs) are passed through to consumers with as little margin as possible.’’

He also said his government had invested in flood mitigation.

Originally published as Steven Miles, David Crisafulli rule out state-owned insurer