Pyne to revive stateowned insurance

AUSTRALIA’S last government-owned insurance office was sold by the Northern Territory Government in 2014 for $424 million.

Cairns MP Rob Pyne (right) wants to revive the concept, promising to table a bill he says will drive down the cost of insurance for Far North residents.

“The privatisation of the State Government Insurance Office in the 1990s has resulted in consumers paying unaffordable high insurance premiums and was a bad decision for Queensland,” the independent MP said.

“The major parties have a clear conflict of interest and cannot be trusted due to their links with private insurance companies.”

The SGIO was instituted by the Queensland Government in 1917 as a monopoly provider of workers’ compensation services, before becoming Suncorp.

“I have had people in my office in tears about the cost of insurance,” Mr Pyne said. “People in body corporate units feel particularly discriminated against. I will be campaigning on this and should I be re-elected I will have a mandate to act.”