Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was only a couple of months ago that I stood up in this place and talked about Townsville's market failure of an essential service. That essential service is insurance. You have to have insurance if you have a loan for your house or strata title property, or if you own a business. We've seen market failure in northern Australia.

A couple of weeks ago, I was very proud to join my northern colleagues to announce a fix which will bring relief for anyone with insurance on property above the Tropic of Capricornia. The $10 billion government reinsurance pool could result in savings of hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars every year for local families. Under this plan, the Australian government will take on the risk that insurers have been using as the excuse for our high premiums, and, in turn, the cost to customers will be reduced. This is one of the biggest issues raised with me in the community. And as a community we banded together with a unified voice, took a solid solution to Canberra and got the result we wanted and so desperately needed—further reduced premiums.

We're also running a new North Queensland Strata Title Resilience pilot program to subsidise the cost of cyclone risk mitigation. Not only will this slash bills; it will make buildings stronger, meaning fewer costly delays during the rebuild phase. Insurance has failed in the north, and this will be a solution.