Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Without unnecessarily delaying the debate, I welcome the government’s commitment to look at this. In relation to Senator Joyce’s comments, if the figure is 98 per cent, I think you will find that for certain categories of insurance contracts, particularly for personal injury policies or disability insurance, the proportion is much higher. I accept that, if it is a case of a motor vehicle accident or a property damage claim, those sorts of things are generally resolved very quickly, but where there are issues of interpretation to deal with personal accident policies I think you will find the proportion is much higher.

Question negatived.

by leave—I move my amendments (3) and (4) on sheet 5891 revised together:

(3)    Schedule 2, item 18, page 31 (line 9), omit “(other than an award of damages)”.

(4)    Schedule 3, item 26, page 69 (line 4), omit “(other than an award of damages)”.

These amendments are designed to ensure recovery of damages for non-party consumers and provide that the court may order damages as it sees fit, including an award of damages. I think it is anomalous that it is unduly restricted in the current legislation framework. This is intended to deal with that anomaly.