The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has expressed its disappointment in the Federal Government’s decision to not contribute to the Queensland Government’s extreme weather resilience package.
Last month, the ICA praised the Queensland Government’s announcement of a $741 million Resilient Residential Recovery package to better protect Queenslanders from the impacts of extreme weather events, such as flood and cyclone.
The Queensland Government had requested that the Federal Government fund 50% of the package, which was designed to assist Queenslanders pay for resilience measures such as retrofitting and raising homes in flood impacted areas.
The ICA has long called for the Queensland Government to lift its investment in this area, and late in February released its Building a More Resilient Australia report which called for $726 million to be invested jointly by the Queensland and Federal Governments over the next five years.
The Council argues that Federal Government investments must be doubled nationally to $200 million a year over five years, and for this to be matched by the states and territories, if resilience is to be improved.
“As severe rain and flooding continues to impact the east coast the failure of the Federal Government to match Queensland’s investment in measures to improve household and community protections against extreme weather is disappointing and short-sighted,” said ICA CEO Andrew Hall.
“If Australia is to get serious about improving our resilience to flood, bushfire and cyclone, all levels of government to contribute,” he continued.
“Australians – particularly those still impacted by the ongoing rain and flooding – want governments to come together to provide better protections against worsening extreme weather, not wash their hands of responsibility.”
As of Friday 1st April, more than 92,700 claims had been lodged in Queensland in relation to the March floods, with an estimated claims cost of $1.3 billion.
