$5.2bn insurance bill from horror bushfires

The insurance bill from Australia’s catastrophic summer has reached $5.19bn after a flurry of claims in the past month.

A home in Malua Bay, NSW, destroyed by bushfires on January 8. Picture: Jesse Rowan/AAP

The insurance bill from Australia’s catastrophic summer has reached $5.19bn after a flurry of claims in the past month, the Insurance Council of Australia has revealed.

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the ICA said over 15,000 new claims worth $270m had been lodged in the past four weeks, with the devastating summer ranking as one of the most expensive in the nation’s history.

The estimated insurance losses from the bushfires along the east coast, which raged from early November, represented almost half of the total, at $2.32bn across 38,181 claims.

The vast majority of those claims came from NSW, which bore the brunt of the damage, while Victoria and South Australia each accounted for 8 per cent of the claims.

With almost half the 288,100 claims already closed, ICA head of communications Campbell Fuller said it was an “extraordinary result” for households and businesses impacted by disaster.

“Insurers have already paid more than $2.85bn for emergency accommodation, business interruption, repair and rebuilding work, replacement of motor vehicles and goods, services and settlements,” Mr Fuller said.

“This is despite the widespread impact of the natural disaster season and the handbrake effect of COVID-19.”

Despite the carnage from the Black Summer bushfires, the ICA said almost two-thirds of residential building claims had been closed.

It said goods had been repaired, replaced or payments had been made in 80 per cent of contents claims, while 70 per cent of motor vehicle claims also closed.

On Tuesday, the royal commission into national natural disaster arrangements heard that insurance companies had “significantly improved” their handling of natural disasters since the Black Saturday bushfires, drawing praise for their prompt and proactive response to the devastating summer.

January 19 hail storms that hammered the east coast, but particularly Canberra, followed the bushfires, costing insurers $1.53bn from 124,693 claims.

East coast storms and floods on February 10 cost $896m across 96,594 claims.

Hailstorms in southeast Queensland saw estimated insurance losses of $451m from 28,642 lodged claims.