Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The Government is today releasing a discussion paper outlining policy options to assist consumers and increase competition in the North Queensland insurance market.

Over the past few years many insurance policyholders have faced significantly increased premiums for home, home contents and strata property insurance. This problem is particularly acute in North Queensland where, in some instances, the cost of strata property insurance has risen by around 200 per cent or more between 2007 and 2012. 

The discussion paper seeks submissions from business and the community on options to:

• help consumers to compare home, home contents and strata property insurance products by developing an insurance information and comparison website (or an insurance aggregator);
• promote  resilience of strata title buildings by facilitating engineering assessments of strata title properties in North Queensland; and
• expand North Queensland insurance markets by encouraging participation by foreign insurers.

The release of this discussion paper complements studies underway by the Australian Government Actuary into strata building and home insurance pricing. The Australian Government Actuary is expected to provide the strata building study to the Government by 31 May 2014.

The Government is committed to developing appropriate and sustainable solutions to tackle the high cost of insurance in North Queensland, while also minimising the regulatory burden.

A copy of the discussion paper is available on the Treasury website - www.treasury.gov.au

Submissions close on 2 June 2014.