Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on the Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability, be established to inquire into and report on:

(a) the unaffordability of insurance in some regions due to climate-driven disasters;

(b) the unavailability of insurance for some people due to climate-driven disasters;

(c) the underlying causes and impacts of increases in insurance premiums;

(d) the extent to which increased climate risk is being priced into insurance products not exposed to climate-driven risks;

(e) the distributional impact of increases in insurance premiums across communities, demographics and regions;

(f) the role of governments to implement climate adaptation and resilience measures to reduce risks and the cost of insurance;

(g) how the pricing of risk from climate-driven disasters can be better redistributed across the economy; and

(h) any other related matters.

(2) That the committee present its final report by 19 November 2024.

(3) That the committee consist of 5 senators, as follows:

(a) two nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;

(b) two nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and

(c) one nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate.

(4) That:

(a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator;

(b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and

(c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

(5) That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that all members have not been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

(6) That the committee elect as chair a member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate and, as deputy chair, a member nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

(7) That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.

(8) That the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, may appoint another member of the committee to act as chair during the temporary absence of both the chair and deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.

(9) That, in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(10) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of three or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.

(11) That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(12) That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

(13) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Question agreed to.