‘Acts of God’ aid plan for compo Call for national fund

AUSTRALIANS could be compensated for “acts of God” under a plan to reduce high insurance premiums.

Katter’s Australian Party has backed a proposal to relieve the pressure on North Queensland’s worsening insurance crisis as costs jump by up to 300 per cent.

The Strata Community Association Queensland is proposing to establish a national fund to compensate people whose property is damaged or destroyed by natural disasters.

The move comes after predictions North Queensland could be hit by four to six cyclones this summer as the La Nina weather system sets in.

KAP leader Rob Katter said the proposed national fund would drive down premiums and stimulate market competition and be similar to one set up in New Zealand to compensate people who lost property in earthquakes.

He said the state was staring down the barrel of an insurance market failure and people in North Queensland would be impacted the most.

Mr Katter called on the state and federal governments to put an end to North Queenslanders being treated as “second-class citizens” when it came to insuring homes or businesses.

Rob Katter.

“I am challenging the incumbent Labor government and the opposition to speak up on this issue and tell Queenslanders, and particularly those of us being choked by this in the North, how they plan to address it,” he said.

“In particular, we would like to see them sit down with those from the industry and formulate an emergency plan.

“We believe, like the SCA does, that a national fund to relieve the burden of having to insure for calamitous natural disasters is where we should start.”

An Australian Consumer and Competition Commission study of insurance premiums in Australia discovered that in early 2018, the average premiums for home and contents insurance in Northern Australia were double the average elsewhere in the country.