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

Again, Senator Lambie, I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about this, but my understanding is that no insurers provided evidence to the committee inquiry that suggested they were going to be putting up premiums as a result of this. There have been people out there saying that these amendments will open the floodgates to unlawful discrimination matters or claims that don't have merit proceeding to court. As I say, the bill provides safeguards against claims that don't have merit. If an applicant institutes a proceeding vexatiously or without reasonable cause or if their unreasonable act or omission caused the other party to incur costs, then the court can order that the person who brought the claim pays the other person's cost. So there are protections in here to prevent that from occurring.