The costs from flooding in Australia’s Queensland and New South Wales areas have risen to an estimated $1.77bn, according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).
The ICA, which has been releasing regular updates on figures, said that the costs originally estimated at $900m were still rising, with the larger rise in number of claims coming from New South Wales. 81% of claims were for property and 16% were for motor. Over 118,000 claims have been received, up from 107,844 in the ICA’s last update.
Andrew Hall, CEO of the ICA, said in a statement: “The ICA welcomes comments by PM Scott Morrison yesterday that the Federal Government will focus on investing in infrastructure to make communities more resilient to extreme weather events like this flood.”
He added: “The ICA and insurers have been calling for an increase in Federal Government investment in this area to $200 million per year, matched by the states and territories. We have previously welcomed commitments also made by the Federal Opposition to increase this investment.”
He went on: “Last month we released our Building a More Resilient Australia election platform and a supporting report from actuarial consultants Finity which highlighted Lismore as one of nine locations in need of urgent flood mitigation infrastructure. This infrastructure and mitigation investment is vitally important to prevent future harm and devastation to these communities, as we know flood events will inevitably repeat.”
