A Townsville resident who’s had it with premium increases on his home and contents cover has urged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to move staff to Northern Australia to monitor premiums and insurer profits.
The call was in response to premium hikes and years of inquiries, the latest of which is the Northern Australian Insurance Premiums Taskforce report, which found that insurers are pricing their premiums to align with high cyclone risks.
Bob Chad made the suggestion to move ACCC staff to North Queensland as he charged insurance companies with ripping off people, and politicians with not doing anything to resolve the issue, Townsville Bulletin reported.
Browse and compare insurance product listings for Home and Contents from specialty market providers here
Chad said his North Ward home saw a 250% increase in home and contents premiums in the five years to 2017. He managed to make a significant reduction by changing insurers and increasing the excess on the policy tenfold to $2,500.
“We are all black-listed because we live north of Rocky,” Chad told the publication. “We’ve had all the politicians carry on but nothing has happened.”
The taskforce report revealed that premium rates for home and contents in North Queensland are an average 1.5 times more than in Brisbane, and 2.5 times higher compared to those in Sydney and Melbourne in 2012-13. For North Queensland strata properties, the rates are on average five times those in southern cities.
Commenting on the premium increases, Chad said they had become so high, pensioners and people with lower incomes could no longer afford them.
“I feel sorry for pensioners and people on a basic wage. I don’t know how they can afford it,” he told Townsville Bulletin.
He said that by transferring staff into North Queensland, ACCC would get a better understanding of what was occurring on the ground.
Meanwhile, there have been calls to create a mutual insurer providing cover, underwritten by the Government, to address the high cost of insurance, the report said.
Related stories:
ACCC needs “power to rectify extortion” - consumer rep
Industry reacts to Federal budget
Federal Government yet to respond to cyclone report
