Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

to move:

That this House:

(1)

recognises that building insurance is an essential service and must be regulated;

(2)

supports and encourages:

(a)

the principle for building insurance to be valued on either:

(i)

agreed value (a value agreed between the insurer and the insured and not less than the market value for special inclusions); and

(ii)

market value (the building cost based on figures from a quantity surveyor);

(b)

settlement policies that reflect market or agreed value at the date a rebuild contract is signed and that takes into account the delay between the period of the incident and the time the rebuild commences;

(3)

calls on the Government to expand the role of the Australian Valuation Office to set the market rates for building costs annually within regions for which insurance companies should base premiums and values and remove the CPI as an index;

(4)

calls on the insurance industry to implement terminology that is standardized and simplified industry wide; and

(5)

calls for Government and insurance industry funded prevention strategies, such as home fire risk reduction programs, in order to help keep insurance premiums low.

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