Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
Brisbane suffered the greatest financial loss on the east coast following February’s flooding event of more than $1bn, according to a new report that found it to be the most expensive flood in Australia’s history.
The total cost of South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales’ February to March floods has so far reached $5.28bn, according to the Insurance Council’s second Insurance Catastrophe Resilience Report, commissioned from the McKell Institute.
It’s now officially the most expensive flood in Australia’s history and the second most expensive natural disaster the nation has ever seen after the 1999 Eastern Sydney Hailstorm which cost $5.57bn in damages, normalised to 2017 values.
Brisbane racked up the largest bill of $1.38bn, which was more than double that of Lismore’s $508m in insured damages, according to the report.
However, with the difference in population, Brisbane’s incurred loss worked out to be $1500 per adult, compared to $20,000 per adult in Lismore.
Meanwhile the average claim for those in Brisbane was $30,000, which was the lowest average figure, with Lismore seeing the highest at $80,000 on average per claim.
Insurance Council of Australia CEO Andrew Hall said the results of the report showed the impacts of climate change, prompting the need for immediate changes in disaster management policy.
“Over the last decade the percentage of all spending in resilience and mitigation has declined in comparison to the money spent on recovery and a clean-up, and this is again a reminder why the change in policy thinking, with the Albanese Government’s $200 million-a-year Disaster Ready Fund, has been so necessary,” he said.
“States and territories must also do their bit and match this funding to protect communities from worsening extreme weather.
“They should also act now to reform state taxes on insurance products as an immediate measure to make insurance more affordable and lift the level of cover against extreme weather events.”
According to the report, this year’s flood cost every Australian household an average of $1532 in direct costs, which was up from the 10 year average of $888 for extreme weather events.
But this figure is expected to jump to more than $2500 a year by 2050, with McKell Institute CEO Michael Buckland saying in just under three decades Australian households would be paying more every year for the direct costs of extreme weather events.
“Every Australian pays for natural disasters through the rising cost of produce or shouldering the tax bill for recovery,” he said.
“The direct costs from extreme weather events are estimated to grow by more than 5 per cent above inflation and reach more than $35 billion by 2050.”
The report also calculated that this year’s flood cost Australian households an average of $525 extra, even if they weren’t directly affected, due to its price impacts on agricultural goods as well as tax hikes due to extra government spending on recovery.
Short, medium and long-term solutions were suggested by the Insurance Council to directly address missteps in previous disasters with the report, saying the past 12 months proved Australia could no longer take a “reactive approach” to disaster management.
The council suggested the abolition of taxes on insurance to improve affordability, doing more for co-ordination and preparedness for disaster clean-ups, better land use planning and improved building code and investing in mitigation strategies on a state and federal level.
Meanwhile, RACQ acting group executive (insurance) Trent Sayers said that of the 15,600 insurance claims
