Bushfires: damages claims get fast-track priority

Insurers have flown in assessors from overseas to help manage the thousands of outstanding bushfire claims.

Insurance Council of Australia boss Rob Whelan. Picture: Tim Marsden

Insurers have flown in assessors from overseas to help manage the thousands of outstanding claims made since September, as the total value of insurance claims from bushfire-ravaged areas soars to $700m.

Chief executives of seven leading insurers, including IAG, Suncorp, QBE, Zurich and Comminsure, gathered in Canberra on Tuesday to reassure Josh Frydenberg that the industry was doing everything it could to assist customers devastated by the ongoing crisis. “The insurance industry has taken a number of steps already to give support to those who need it,” the Treasurer said after the meeting.

Insurers have worked hard to accelerate the claims process, including providing payouts within seven days.

They have provided “some cash support” to those in immediate need of money to buy necessities and waived excesses for those suffering acute hardship, Mr Frydenberg said.

“They have increased their staffing levels, including bringing in assessors from overseas, and they will continue to take steps to ensure they have the adequate number of people there to process these claims and to assess the damage,” he said.

About a fifth of bushfire-­related claims have been assessed, and about half of those settled.

The vast majority have been for home and contents policies.

Insurance Council of Australia boss Rob Whelan, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, told The Australian that insurers were yet to deny any claims.

Despite the vast scope of the bushfire crisis, which stretches along the coast from the Queensland border down to Victoria, as well as in areas of South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, Mr Whelan said “this event is well within our capacity to deal with”.

He said the industry had learnt from previous disasters, including the Queensland floods and the Victorian Black Saturday fires, and the claims-management process “is far more slick now than it has ever been before”.

Separately, the head of the newly created national disaster ­recovery agency said he expected money from Scott Morrison’s $2bn bushfire reconstruction fund to begin flowing to fire-ravaged communities “within the week” as the government begins a mammoth recovery operation.

Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin told The Australian that the National Bushfire Recovery Fund, announced on Monday, would be used to meet areas of need that didn’t “neatly fit” those situations already covered by pre-existing disaster assistance payments.

“You should expect announcements from the government within the week and certainly in the very near future,” Mr Colvin said of the bushfire fund.

“Money is already flowing and the Prime Minister has been very clear to me that money has to get out. We are not limiting the scope, and taking more of a broad view when it comes to relief.”

Delivering services to affected communities in “the fastest way possible” was his key priority.

Both Mr Colvin and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud stressed the recovery effort would be rolled out at the local level, as the pair vowed to listen to affected communities. “I don’t want it to be a Canberra-led recovery. I want it to be a local ­recovery. And that’s why, when rebuilding lives, it can’t be done from Canberra,” Mr Littleproud said.

Mr Colvin acknowledged the mammoth task ahead of him.

“People’s futures are in the hands of this agency and that’s daunting, and very humbling.”

He will visit fire-affected communities in coming days to better understand their needs.

“I don’t want to get in the way of response. I don’t want to get in the way of those people doing their jobs to save homes, lives and properties,” Mr Colvin said, “but I need to hear from them.”