The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) have announced that they have welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to draw down on its Emergency Response Fund, which will see $150 million being injected for communities devastated by the recent floods.
Both the Queensland and New South Wales governments will receive $75 million each, which will help to assist in immediate disaster recovery, as well as providing much-needed funding for future disaster risk mitigation and resilience initiatives.
Insurers across both states have now received 150,774 claims related to the floods which commenced in February, a 1.9% increase from the 148,000 claims that were recorded on March 17.
Based on previous flood events the ICA says this is currently a $2.262 billion industry loss.
This funding from the government is a response to both The ICA and other insurers who have long been calling for greater investment in making homes, businesses and communities more resilient in the face of worsening extreme weather.
In late February the Insurance Council released the ICAs election platform – Building a More Resilient Australia, calling for a doubling of federal funding to $200 million a year matched by states and territories.
The platform called for a range of measures to better protect households and communities from the impacts of extreme weather, and put downward pressure on premiums too.
In a press release, Andrew Hall, CEO Insurance Council of Australia said: “In the past two weeks we have seen millions impacted by worsening extreme weather as a result of climate change.
“The devastation we have witnessed is evidence of the urgent need to improve community resilience in areas with high risk of extreme weather impacts. We welcome this much needed investment, not only for communities in desperate need of help now but which, when the time comes to build again, will need investment that makes them safer and more resilient.”
