Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the chair of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia and the final report of the inquiry into the cyclone reinsurance pool. Just on the wording, there are a couple of extra statements that have been added, so it's not quite a dissenting report. The committee worked very well together. The chair and deputy chair gave us a lot of opportunity to be involved with things, and I think we put some very good recommendations forward. There are eight recommendations in total, and I would really like the government of the day to have a good look at those recommendations, because a lot of good work has gone into this.

This is our second report. We had the first report tabled in March 2023, and that was a little bit early. The whole insurance pool was in its infancy. It's fair to say it's still quite in its infancy. The big insurance companies, the ones that have a book value of over $300 million, had to be in by December 2023, and the smaller insurance companies, with a book value of less than $300 million, had to be in by December 2024. That was only a few months ago, so we haven't seen the full effect of what this reinsurance pool has been able to do yet. It's fair to say that so far we have seen some savings. However, some of these savings have been eaten up because of the increase in costs of building. Building costs have gone up 30 or 40 per cent, so, any time they have had some savings within the insurance premiums, they seem to have been gobbled up. That is something that we do have to have a good look at.

Recommendation 2 is about marine insurance. We've actually asked the government to have a look at that. I'll just read that one:

The committee recommends that the Australian Government publish modelling on the cost and benefits of the inclusion of marine insurance in the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool.

That's quite important. We have a lot of marine operators who have been asking us if we can have a serious look at that, so I hope that the government will have a look at that.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the secretariat. They have done a tremendous job on this. Our secretariat has bounced around a little bit, which has created a couple of headaches, but Alan and Ros have been with us through these last reports, and they've done a very good job.

We pay way too much for insurance in northern Australia, and something has to be done. I'm not necessarily wedded just to this reinsurance pool. If we have to tweak it in some way, then that's what we'll have to do. Some ideas have come forward about stretching out the flooding component of it; let's have a look at that. It's still in its infancy. I think it's got a long way to run, but it's certainly a good vehicle for what's happening so far.

I won't monopolise the time. I would like to thank the chair, Marion Scrymgour, for how she involved everyone. I really want to thank the deputy chair, Warren Entsch. He's been on this committee for quite some time. This week will probably be his last week in this place. He does some outstanding contributions and works really hard on this committee. With those few words, I think this is an outstanding report, and I commend it to the House.

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