Friday, March 29, 2024

Time for state to play role in insurance costs – feds

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The LNP is calling on the state government to do its bit for north Queensland insurance prices by dropping stamp duty on insurance policies.

Susan McDonald
LNP Senator Susan McDonald is backing a $10 billion reinsurance pool. Photo courtesy Cape York Weekly

Queensland Senator Susan McDonald said the federal government’s proposed $10 billion reinsurance pool would be a game changer for North Queensland.

The reinsurance pool would be backed by a $10 billion annually reinstated Commonwealth guarantee and be administered by the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation from July 1, 2022.

More than 880,000 residential, strata and small business property insurance policies in northern Australia are expected to be eligible to be covered by the reinsurance pool for the risk of cyclone and related flood damage.

The bill was last week referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, which is due to report back by March 24, as the federal government faces a tight timetable to meet a planned July start for the scheme.

“I’ve been proud to stand with North Queensland Coalition MPs in pushing for a solution to the insurance market failure we’ve experienced in our part of Australia, and I thank Assistant Finance Minister Michael Sukkar for listening and acting – not only on our concerns but the concerns of stakeholders during the review process,” Senator McDonald said.

“If Labor wants to oppose this reinsurance pool, they will have to answer to the people of northern Australia.

“We’ve seen Labor MPs fudge facts to criticise the enormous investment the Liberal and Nationals government have made in northern Australia, but now is the chance for them to be part of the solution to a long-standing problem.”

Senator McDonald repeated her calls for the Queensland government to drop stamp duty on insurance premiums to grant further relief to long-suffering North Queenslanders.

“The ACCC reports that the state government raked in $65 million in 2018-19 from North Queensland alone in stamp duty, which adds between 9 and 10 per cent to premiums,” she said.

“The state government should be transparent about what it does with this tax on North Queenslanders, and if they won’t remove it, they should spend all revenue from the north on disaster resilience programs in the north.

“Continuing to charge stamp duty is a slap in the face for North Queensland.”

Cape York Weekly 15 February 2022

This article appeared in Cape York Weekly, 15 February 2022.

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