Insurance relief on way for the North

FEDERAL government intervention on sky-high insurance premiums in Northern Australia will arrive soon – as hinted by Coalition senators in a major report into the Commonwealth’s agenda for the North.

North Queensland has grappled for years with unaffordable insurance coverage, with premiums soaring 130 per cent in the past decade.

There have been ongoing calls for governments to act urgently, particularly on a suite of recommendations by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as part of its inquiry into insurance in Northern Australia.

The federal government has yet to respond to the ACCC’S report, but two Coalition senators involved in a Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth’s agenda for the North have hinted solutions are to be announced soon.

Townsville-based Senator Susan Mcdonald and Coalition colleague Dean Smith noted in the report tabled late yesterday that the government was considering recommendations the ACCC report.

They also noted they were “highly supportive of other additional measures that the Australian government believes could help to solve the insurance crisis in Northern Australia”.

What those solutions are have not been announced, though Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch recently said he was “quietly confident” of a reinsurance pool being announced in the federal budget.

The inquiry into the government’s Northern Australia of agenda, chaired by Labor Senator Murray Watt, found overall progress had been “slower than the community expected”.

The committee made a total of 29 recommendations, with most receiving bipartisan support.

The recommendations included a call for the Australian government, in partnership with the state and territory governments, to draw up a long-term strategy of road and rail funding for the area.

“We’ve known for a long time that Northern Australia isn’t being given the federal support it needs to grow,” Senator Watt said.

“The groups we spoke to during the hearings have proven communities in the North are very resourceful when it comes to getting the job done, but it’s clear the Morrison government should be doing more to help.

“This is a bipartisan report, backed by senators from a wide range of political persuasions, and that gives me great hope that the Morrison government will take these recommendations seriously, and act urgently.”