The Queensland budget handed down last week contains good news and bad news for the insurance industry.

While the State Government has allocated more than $51 million to disaster mitigation and resilience projects over the next year, in the same period it will receive much more – $840 million – in stamp duty paid on insurance premiums.

Local Government, Community Recovery and Resilience Minister David Crisafulli says the funding will help people prepare for future natural catastrophes “as we strive to make Queensland Australia’s most resilient state”.

Insurance Council of Australia CEO Rob Whelan has welcomed the commitment to mitigation, saying investment in resilience provides long-term protection for at-risk communities and can lead to lower insurance premiums.

But he says he’s disappointed at the decision to leave stamp duty on insurance products sold in Queensland at 9% – a level it imposed in 2012.

Pointing out that the ACT Government has committed to removing taxes on insurance products by July 1 2016, Mr Whelan says Queensland should abolish taxes on compulsory insurance such as strata “as an interim step towards total stamp duty removal”.

Queensland will collect $3.7 billion from stamp duty on insurance in the four years to 2017/18.

“Given the strong focus of the Queensland and federal governments on the cost of insurance, a reduction in stamp duty would have appropriately complemented the [State] Government’s work on resilience infrastructure and further improved affordability.”