David Keys, pictured, says he could not be happier since departing Melbourne to set up Broome Insurance Brokers – a part of AB Phillips – and says the team of three are hiring and have opened a Perth office.

How did you transition from east coast to west?

I had been holidaying here for the last five or six years and I said ‘I’m going to buy a house in Broome and I am going to go over there each winter’.

Then the pandemic came along and I left Melbourne with the intention of staying a few months, but I couldn’t help myself – I turned it into a business opportunity and it has taken off. I love it professionally and personally, so I have set my roots here and I am going to be here until my feet curl up.

I really thought it would just be for the winter but I could not be happier to be honest, though it would help if Mr (Mark) McGowan would open the borders.

How is business under strict border restrictions in WA?

The border closure rather than the virus is causing the issue over here. We are in a jail – it’s outdoors, so it is not too bad, but still you are under lock and key.

With Microsoft Teams and Zoom, people are used to dealing remotely. Everybody accepts this is a normal way of doing business and so it has not impacted my client base one little bit and I have not lost one client because I am based in WA.

We are really bullish about the future. It is a new name in WA but it is very easy to sell. The Broome Insurance Brokers brand has resonated with locals and it has been terrific. We’re looking to expand and hire one more and also at some potential acquisitions.

I have still got a client base in Melbourne and Sydney. We have 90 staff in the Moorabbin office, I would like to come across and see them. It is hard to believe that three years down the track we still can’t. It is still nice to sit in front of your large corporate clients and shake their hand and take them out for lunch. We just can’t do that at this point in time.

You have urged the government to include WA in its cyclone reinsurance pool. Any joy there?

I feel it’s going to be focused on Far North Queensland and not Far North WA. There are different issues between the east and west but it just seems to be all-embracing.

It is vital for the region up here in Broome that something gets done. The people over here are paying three or four times the price for house insurance than in a capital city, so it is very demoralising and frustrating.

You could almost set your watch by the fact Queensland will have a cyclone but it is not the same for WA. It is not the same sort of infrastructure either. No insurer will give me the data to justify the rates that they are charging. I am not convinced that insurers don’t just put everything into the one box and just say “Well, everything above the 26th parallel we lose money on.” Can we look at it region by region and not all in together?

Who are your local clients?

This is a big tourism area. The border has impacted a hell of a lot. Staff cannot get here, so any tourism or hospitality business is really feeling the pinch. We have a lot of those clients and it is hurting.

Even though there is little or no virus here, people have adapted to working from home which in itself has impacted hospitality and the city is nowhere near as vibrant as it used to be.

Mining is still going gangbusters and that is keeping the state going. The iron ore price has dipped but at the end of the day that is how WA does survive, so mining clients are not being affected in any shape or form. In fact, they are really growing substantially, some of our clients in that area.