Suncorp chief executive Patrick Snowball has warned insurance premiums will rise if the number of natural disasters threatening the country escalates year-after-year, as a raft of chaotic weather events continue to batter the country.
His comments come as bushfires are now threatening the outer suburbs of Perth, with at least 50 homes already damaged or destroyed, while residents in Victoria are recovering after a weekend of flash flooding in rural and metropolitan areas.
”I think that people come out with all sorts of numbers early on,” Snowball told ABC’s Inside Business yesterday.
”You often hear loss adjustors saying how many billions a claim is because that encourages people to get in. I mean, substantially, if you actually look at the exposure of re-insurers to claims in north Queensland, actually it’s not that great.”
Snowball added that if natural disasters become a problem year after year, “then re-insurers are not going be looking to their premium being risk mitigation in Australia, they’re going to think it’s going to carry a premium”.
Snowball also added the insurance industry has a lot to contribute in assisting governments “on measures that can be taken to mitigate the risk of changing environmental circumstances”.
Meanwhile in Perth, hundreds of fire fighters are battling a growing blaze in the city’s eastern suburbs, with warnings in place for Roleystone, Kelmscott, Baskerville, Millendon, Herne Hill and Red Hill.
Fire and Emergency Services Authority chief operations officer Craig Hynes has said homes have been damaged and residents have not been allowed back into their homes.
“We’re still calling both fires uncontrolled and we won’t be able to let people back into the areas due to safety reasons,” Hynes said this morning. “We are very concerned about the safety of the fire grounds and we are doing our best to make sure that there are no injuries. Life is our priority.”
While weather conditions are expected to ease from today, Hynes says crews are stretched and it could still be that more homes are damaged.
Power lines have been damaged in Roleystone, while a separate fire in Coorow is threatening to damage more properties there as it remains out of control.
John McMillan, regional coordinate for FESA, told ABC Radio this morning the consistent easterly winds are stoking the fire.
“Our struggle will remain until we get some respite in these unusual weather conditions,” he said. “It’s just the strength of the easterly winds. They were at damaging strength two days ago and they have maintained the consistency.”
Meanwhile, Victorians are now dealing with the aftermath of flash flooding over the weekend. The Government has announced grants of up to $25,950 for people whose homes are uninhabitable, while emergency payments of up to $427 per adult and $213 per child are also available.
Several inner-city areas were flooded yesterday, including major intersections in Camberwell and South Yarra, while at least a dozen people have been injured.
Hundreds of residents in Gippsland evacuated yesterday as the Bunyip River threatened to break its banks, and relief centres were set up around the state in Swan Hill, Ballarat and Creswick.
Major roads and freeways, including parts of the Princes and Monash freeways, were forced to close as flooding became too dangerous. The SES said it had received thousands of calls from areas where over 100mls of rain had fallen in less than 24 hours.
Premier Ted Baillieu has said the Government will need some time to consider the cost of the floods, which will be exacerbated by a blow to the agricultural sector – tens of thousands of sheep have been killed in the latest floods and millions of dollars’ worth of crops have been destroyed.
“Can I simply ask all Victorians to be patient, to demonstrate the patience and the commonsense they’ve demonstrated over the past few days and indeed over the past month, and bear with us,” he said yesterday.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
