Queensland mayors say state and federal governments should make insurance in the state more affordable and available, and risk mitigation efforts have not been fairly reflected in premium rates. 

Local Government Association of Queensland CEO Alison Smith says councils have invested significantly in flood mitigation projects since 2012 yet communities are not benefiting as they should.  

“The LGAQ calls on governments to urgently implement measures to make flood insurance affordable,” she said. 

Balonne Shire Council mayor Samantha O’Toole says investment in disaster levees that protect rural communities in the south-west “should help reduce insurance premiums”. 

“We have two similar properties, one inside the levee bank protected area and one outside of it. Recent insurance bills from both properties show identical spikes in their insurance premiums,” she said. “Why is mitigation not achieving lower premiums?” 

In Maranoa, deputy mayor Cameron O’Neil says local, state and federal governments “have been investing to protect our communities yet there’s been a huge spike in insurance premiums". 

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson said today there is no evidence to back up accusations by the mayors of “price gouging,” and Australian insurers collectively lost more than $650 million on home insurance policies over the four years to 2023.  

Insurance premiums are rising "wherever you live in Australia” because of the escalating costs of natural disasters, growing value of assets making them more costly to replace, inflation driving up building and vehicle repair costs, and insurers’ increasing cost of doing business.  

“Queensland is the most extreme weather exposed state in the country, and Logan, Mackay, Maranoa and Balonne LGAs all face very significant flood risk, only some of which has been mitigated. Most Queensland LGAs also face cyclone risk,” the ICA spokesperson told insuranceNEWS.com.au. 

“Customers are encouraged to shop around ... If all insurers are quoting similar prices it’s most likely that the risk is high.” 

Mackay mayor Greg Williamson said insurance charges had been an ongoing issue and "the state government needs to step in and help with a solution to ease insurance pressures,” while Logan mayor Jon Raven has called on insurers to share the methodologies used to calculate premiums and show greater transparency on how flood risk is priced into policies.  

“The challenges posed by the 2022 major floods in Logan underscored the need for systemic change in how we approach insurance coverage in flood prone areas,” he said. 

The ICA says insurers use LGA maps on the National Flood Information Database to assess flood risk at a property level, and the Logan council has “historically declined to provide its flood maps to the NFID, removing one of the tools insurers would use to assess flood risk,” while Mackay council’s contributions are about five years old. 

The ICA is currently in discussions with both councils about sharing their most recent flood maps, and also says flood levees have been proven to bring down the cost of insurance, for example in Roma.