Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Sheldon. As I know you know well, disaster risk is the largest driver of insurance premium rises along with the rising cost of reinsurance internationally. The Albanese government is committed to doing our bit to reduce the cost of living for all Australians, and that's why we're designing policies to put downward pressure on insurance premiums and get real results. Through our Disaster Ready Fund, which, of course, replaced the failed Emergency Response Fund from the opposition, which didn't build a single disaster mitigation project in the years that it existed, in contrast, we're investing up to $200 million each and every year through resilience and mitigation projects across Australia. Within the Disaster Ready Fund we're co-funding $40 million towards the Queensland Household Resilience Program. Previous rounds of this program have seen a more than 13 per cent drop in insurance premiums for Queenslanders who made their homes more resilient. Our $174 million joint commitment to the Bundaberg flood levy—not supported by the local National Party member—estimates reductions in insurance premiums of $1,000 a year. (Time expired)