The peak body for insurers wants the next federal government to stump up $30 billion to protect homes. Climate-fuelled flooding will batter Australian communities in the coming decades. Addressing the impacts of climate change is a difficult task for federal governments. But the costs of climate change are now felt by millions of ordinary Australians.
Its cheaper to buy a house in a flood plain, but the cost of insuring it is almost impossible. The report found 70% of people at the highest flood risk of flooding earned below $92,000 per year. And 35 per cent of these households were below the poverty line of $25,000 per year.
The CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia is Andrew Hall. He said "we have a major challenge with flooding... homes built over the last couple of hundred years."
There is one key way to address the crisis. Reduce or remove the underlying risks. That is the message from a new Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) report released today.