By Callum Ludwig
Insurance prices in the electorate of Casey were a hot topic at a recent ‘Meet the Candidates’ event in Tecoma.
With new analysis highlighting just how high home insurance can be in the Yarra Ranges, the Star Mail asked the prospective politicians how they would like to see the issue addressed.
Since putting questions to candidates, a few more people (Animal Justice Party’s Chloe Bond, Ambere Livori from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Trumpet of Patriots Phillip Courtis) have put their names up to run in the Casey electorate. These candidates will be contacted for any election coverage in the Star Mail prior to election day.
Greens candidate Dr Merran Blair said rising home insurance premiums are particularly an issue in Casey, where we see the increased risk of bushfires, floods, and other climate change events as reasons for insurance companies to raise premiums.
“Firstly, we need to take action to address climate change so the impacts of extreme weather events are minimised and insurance premiums are lowered, the climate crisis is negatively impacting all aspects of modern life in Casey and this has been a reality for some time, as we see bushfires, storms, and flooding increasing and limiting our ability to communicate, connect, and power our houses,” she said.
“My house insurance premiums have increased by 300 per cent in the past five years, and I have to shop around each time I renew, last year when it came time to auto-renew the cost was double what I ended up paying when I shopped around, but not everyone does this, and I fear that insurance companies may be taking advantage,”
“To monitor insurance premiums I want to see greater accountability from insurance companies to justify their premium increases with stronger disclosure obligations, and more ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) powers to monitor and act on this, I also want to make polluting coal, gas and oil companies contribute to an expanded reinsurance pool and Disaster Ready Fund.”
The Greens also want to abolish stamp duty on home and car insurance, expand the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool to include all natural disasters and establish a public national disaster risk map and database.
Liberal candidate and incumbent Casey MP Aaron Violi said we can’t afford to continue on our current path.
“Insurance is an ongoing challenge for our community, we live among a beautiful landscape, but our community has a long history of natural disaster – whether it’s bushfire, storms or flooding, we know that many local residents and businesses cannot get the insurance they need, which is causing families to be underinsured, or in some cases not insured at all,”
“It is vital that families have adequate coverage for their assets, and the Coalition has put insurers on notice that if we receive evidence which shows that the market isn’t functioning properly then we will take strong action,”
“Our expectation is that insurers meet their legal obligations and deliver affordable insurance to their customers and we are closely monitoring this sector.”
Independent candidate Claire Ferres Miles pointed to research by The Australia Institute released on 5 March which found that one in five Australians (19 per cent) are either underinsured or uninsured, representing 1.4 million homes and that the middle 20 per cent of Australian households (about 1.95 million people) would lose 74 per cent of their wealth if their home is destroyed in a natural disaster and the poorest 20 per cent of Australians, would lose more than half of their wealth if they had no contents insurance.
Ms Ferres Miles said soaring insurance premiums in Casey are a major pain point, contributing to cost-of-living pressures.
“The people of Casey are living each and every day with a climate crisis, with thousands of families like mine impacted by more frequent and more extreme storms, floods, landslips and bushfires, and we know each emergency is not a one-off but our new normal,” she said.
“Casey is also experiencing rising levels of underinsurance or no insurance, people have told me they are choosing between paying either the home insurance or the car insurance as they can’t afford both, under insurance or no insurance is not a possibility, it is a reality in Casey,”
“The Federal Government is not doing enough to address climate risk, with climate resilience a massive gap in federal policy, I support a meaningful increase in funding for resilience and preparedness measures to protect residents and businesses, this must be a priority of the next Parliament.”
Ms Ferres Miles also pointed to a Senate Select Committee on the Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability which tabled its final report in November 2024 and made two recommendations related to the insurance sector:
Insurance companies be required to provide policyholders with a sufficient breakdown and explanation of insurance premium costs, including details of price changes in response to resilience and disaster mitigation measures undertaken
For the ACCC to monitor premium prices across Australia and publish monitoring reports on a quarterly basis on its website.
Labor candidate Naomi Oakley said the Casey electorate has been impacted by severe natural
disasters floods and bushfires, and these and other worldwide factors have resulted in significantly increased home insurance premiums.
“In Victoria, the average cost of premiums has risen by around $425 to around $2442, these increases are causing great financial stress and putting homeowners in danger of being unable to afford insurance,” she said
“The major cause of the increased premium is the level of natural disasters occurring around the world and the resulting increase in reinsurance rates, that means local insurance companies are paying much higher premium to reinsure.
“This is a major problem requiring a major rethink on how we do insurance in Australia – because the natural disasters will keep on coming. If elected, I will commit to working for a fundamental review of how we do insurance for property in Australia, including the creating of our own Australia reinsurance pool.”
Family First candidate Dan Nebauer was contacted for comment.
