Federal Labor under pressure over calls to expand Cyclone Reinsurance Pool to cover all natural disasters
A report that recommended making insurance cheaper for millions more Australians has been left to languish for almost a year. HAVE YOUR SAY
A report that recommended making insurance cheaper for millions more Australians has been left to languish for almost a year.
Federal Labor is under pressure to respond to a Senate report handed down 11 months ago that called for expanding the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool to cover all natural disasters.
If the recommendation was adopted, it would give Australians living in areas at risk of bushfires and floods access to cheaper insurance.
The government is supposed to respond to senate reports within three months, but Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi who chaired the inquiry said Labor was “abrogating its responsibility by not acting”.
“It is criminal that the inquiry report has been gathering dust on government shelves for almost a year without the government responding to it,” she told this masthead.
“The government is abrogating its responsibility by not acting on the committee’s recommendations at a time when the cascading impacts of the climate-driven disasters are wreaking havoc on peoples’ lives and livelihoods, including skyrocketing insurance premiums that are increasingly unaffordable and unavailable.
“As temperatures rise, as floods and fires become more intense and the housing-climate-insurance crises collide, there is an urgency to act, but this government is sitting on its laurels as communities suffer.”
The report also recommended the Disaster Ready Fund be increased from $200m per annum to $400m, that the Treasurer order the consumer watchdog to publish quarterly monitoring reports on premium prices, and that the government look at options for imposing a levy on coal and gas companies to be spent on disaster mitigation and resilience measures.
The government is still considering the report’s recommendations, and will be examined “in the context of the government’s ongoing work in relation to disaster preparedness and resilience, and addressing insurance affordability”, a spokeswoman said.
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino and Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain are working together on reforming insurance and improving affordability.
“The Albanese Government continues to work closely with industry and communities to improve insurance affordability and accessibility,” Mr Mulino’s office said.
In response to the Senate inquiry, and a separate report compiled by a the House of Representatives on insurers’ response to the 2022 major floods, the Insurance Council of Australia set new guidelines around transparency and pledged to work with governments to lose the protection gap.
A spokesperson for the council said the existence or potential expansion of the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool “does not lower risk”.
“The only way to bring down insurance premiums over the long term is risk reduction which means greater investment in mitigation and measures to make homes and businesses stronger to better withstand the impacts of extreme weather,” they said.
Originally published as Federal Labor under pressure over calls to expand Cyclone Reinsurance Pool to cover all natural disasters
