The Government and Labor opposition have engaged in a verbal sparring match over insurance in Northern Australia.
The Government has released an update on the progress being made, with the Turnbull Government focusing on the $7.9 million in funding for an ACCC inquiry into insurance premiums in the north of the country.
The inquiry will monitor and report on prices, costs and profits in the insurance market and will focus on home, contents and strata insurance with a particular emphasis on the impact of natural catastrophe risk on the market.
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Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer said that the inquiry will be able to directly consider the impact on premiums from Cyclone Debbie, which struck earlier this year.
O’Dwyer took the opportunity to suggest that the Labor opposition should focus on encouraging their colleagues in Queensland to take action on the issue.
“There are actions that the Queensland Labor Government could take immediately to reduce insurance premiums in Northern Queensland including reforming strata regulations and addressing inefficient state taxes, including stamp duties on insurance premiums,” O’Dwyer said.
In a joint media release, Katy
Gallagher, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Financial Services, and Jason Clarke, Labor’s Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, hit back at the Government saying that O’Dwyer was “attempting to shift blame for her own failures” on the issue.
“It’s well past time for the Minister to step up and take some responsibility here and focus on how best to help homeowners and businesses meet the costs of protecting themselves during natural disasters like cyclones instead of the petty finger pointing the Minister is currently engaging in,” the statement said.
The opposition stressed that the Government still has not responded to its own Northern Australian Insurance Premiums Taskforce, which was received by Government in November 2015, and instead “chose to point the finger squarely at the insurance industry and commissioned yet another review into the costs of Northern Australia Insurance premiums”.
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