Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Townsville Chamber of Commerce has put out a document showing that we pay over $4,000 a year for insurance on our houses, whilst the rest of Australia pays $1,500. This would be justified if our insurance companies did not have an actuarial policy of looking backwards instead of forwards. All of the houses that could be destroyed have been destroyed, by a series of cyclones—which we have all the time—but the cyclones are not taking out the post-Tracy houses. All the houses that could go have gone. All the houses that are there have withstood Cyclone Larry, which had the highest wind speeds of any recorded cyclone in Australian history. It snapped telegraph poles in three.

Twenty-five per cent of houses in North Queensland now aren't insured. People can't afford to insure their houses. Allianz has come forward and said, 'We will provide you with the same price as the rest of Australia, so long as we get reinsurance off the federal government.' I plead with the federal government to look at reinsurance. You've had seven years in which to look at this, and you've had report after report and inquiry after inquiry—seven years and still nothing. Do it now.