Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) | Hansard source

McDONALD () (): I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cyclone and Flood Damage Reinsurance Pool) Bill 2022. I will just take a moment to compose myself, having just listened to potentially the greatest amount of codswallop that's ever been spoken in this chamber. That's because most critics of the reinsurance pool don't live in the north. They don't reflect the lived experience of thousands of people in the north.

I have to acknowledge the strong advocacy over the last 10 years of Warren Entsch, the member for Leichhardt; George Christensen, the outgoing member for Dawson; Phil Thompson, the member for Herbert; Andrew Wilcox, mayor of Whitsunday and candidate for Dawson; Bryce Macdonald, chairman of Canegrowers Tully and LNP candidate for Kennedy; and Deputy Mayor Andrew Cripps and Nicole Tobin, both Senate candidates for the LNP. All of these people live, work, play and pay the increased costs of insurance and the associated costs of rentals in North Queensland.

Of all the senators in this place, 7.9 per cent live in northern Australia; 4.6 of House of Representatives members live in northern Australia. We have 51 per cent of the land mass of the country, 1.3 million people, three per cent of the population and we produce 11 per cent of the GDP, yet we have to listen to those from the south who refuse to give us the same advantages and level playing field we desperately need in the north.

In these critical times, it is important that Australia gets stronger—and gets stronger quickly. The way we do that is to invest in the places where we make our money, the places that generate the royalties and the income to ensure the highest standard of living that Australians enjoy compared to so many of our near neighbours. Roads and infrastructure for families and communities are investments in the north, but none of this is possible without affordable and accessible insurance.

In the north we pay more. We pay more for electricity. We pay more for building materials. In Cloncurry it costs $700,000 to build the same house that costs $400,000 in Brisbane. We pay more for flights to get in and out of our regions, and we pay more for insurance—and for a long time, longer than the rest of the country. Our premiums have been at least 2½ times what people in the south pay, and that's if you can get insurance at all. That is according to the ACCC's Northern Australia insurance inquiry report. That is data. This is especially grim for businesses. Many are forced to self-insure because no insurance companies will give them coverage and no bank will lend.

Those people who live in the north—work in the north, pay bills in the north—advocated to this government, which has come forward with this $10 billion reinsurance pool. The reinsurance pool is predicted to reduce premiums for households, strata title properties and small to medium enterprises. The Townsville Chamber of Commerce has calculated that if just two-thirds of the projected savings was spent in the city annually there would be approximately $222 million in economic output, a combination of $118 million to gross regional product, over $60 million in income and salaries for local workers, and approximately 949 additional ongoing full-time jobs created. These numbers do not include reductions in small business premiums, and if they did they would reflect even greater benefits. Importantly, mechanisms are in place to review this legislation within 12 months.

I want to specifically thank consumer advocate Margaret Shaw, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar and all of our northern Queensland MPs, because without this understanding of the genuine and longstanding conditions in northern Australia this legislation would not have come to pass. As I listen to the senators in this place who are going to talk about tragic, devastating floods in other parts of the country, what about giving us a go in northern Australia? What about lifting your eyes up and looking at the disadvantage that's been in northern Australia for over 10 years, rather than reflect on the tragic and terrible circumstances of the most recent floods in southern Australia?

The opposition want to talk about what the Queensland Labor government are going to do. Well, how about they talk to their mates in Queensland, who have been raping and pillaging $65 million a year from North Queensland—