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Insurance Premiums

Answer

Soaring insurance premiums in Casey are a major pain point, contributing to cost-of-living pressures. The Federal Government is not doing enough to address climate risk, with climate resilience a massive gap in federal policy. 

If elected as the Independent MP for Casey I pledge to take these policies to Parliament:

  • I support expanding the Resilient Building Council’s home and business resilience ratings scheme to incentivise adaptation and reduce insurance costs.
  • I support equitable access to affordable insurance policies, especially in high-risk disaster areas.
  • I support a meaningful increase in funding for resilience and preparedness measures to protect residents and businesses. This must be a priority of the next Parliament.

The people of Casey are living each and every day with a climate crisis, with thousands of families like mine impacted by more frequent and more extreme storms, floods, landslips and bushfires. And we know each emergency is not a one-off but our new normal.

Casey is also experiencing rising levels of underinsurance or no insurance. People have told me they are choosing between paying either the home insurance or the car insurance as they can't afford both. Under insurance or no insurance is not a possibility, it is a reality in Casey.

Research by The Australia Institute shows:

  • one in five people (19%) are either underinsured or uninsured, representing 1.4 million homes at risk.
  • the middle 20% of Australian households (about 1.95 million people) would lose three quarters (74%) of their wealth if their home is destroyed in a natural disaster. Meanwhile those doing it toughest, the poorest 20% of Australians, would lose more than half of their wealth if they had no contents insurance.
  • “Australian families are facing an almost impossible choice when it comes to home and contents insurance,” said Matt Grudnoff, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute. “They either find the money to pay ridiculous premiums or risk losing everything they own.

On 16 May 2024, the Senate resolved to establish a Select Committee on the Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability, with its final report tabled in November 2024 outlining two recommendations related to the insurance sector:

  • Insurance companies in Australia be required to provide policyholders with a sufficient breakdown and explanation of insurance premium costs, including details of price changes in response to resilience and disaster mitigation measures undertaken by the policyholder.
  • The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor premium prices across Australia and to publish its monitoring reports on a quarterly basis on its website.

The Climate Council has prepared a Climate Risk Map of Australia. In Casey we have 24.99% of all properties at risk:

  • 1,795 properties at high risk - properties where there is a significant risk of insurance becoming unaffordable or withdrawn entirely due to the high risk of damage from extreme weather. Properties are considered ‘high risk’ when annual damage costs are equivalent to 1% or more of the property replacement cost.
  • 18,358 properties at medium risk - properties where there is a significant risk of insurance becoming increasingly unaffordable due to risk of damage from extreme weather. Properties are considered ‘moderate risk’ when the annual damage costs are equivalent to 0.2-1% of the property replacement cost.