Few claims coming for Qld floods, as Katter wants dams
Ben McKay |
The under-insured plight of Australia’s farmers has been borne out by a slow trickle of claims from northwest Queensland’s floods to date.
The Gulf Country has been drenched in recent weeks, with estimates of tens of thousands of lost cattle in submerged fields across the region.
Australia’s biggest beef producer, the Australian Agricultural Company, is among the hardest hit with three stations – Carrum, Dalgonally and Canobie – in the area.
AACo advised the stock exchange this week that “aligned with industry practice and given the prohibitive costs involved”, it did not hold flood cover.
Insurance insiders contacted by AAP, who did not wish to speak publicly, rejected the idea that it is standard for farmers go without flood cover.
They conceded, however, that many primary producers, both conglomerates and family farmers, struggled to afford growing premiums and most self-insured.
The Industry Council of Australia (ICA) confirmed to AAP that insurers had reported “minimal property damage” and “low claims numbers” from this summer’s deluge so far.
“Prime agricultural land is typically situated on flatter terrain, which naturally increases exposure to flooding events and farming operations can span large, diverse areas with varied assets and risk profiles, making comprehensive coverage complex to underwrite,” an ICA spokeswoman told AAP.
“In typical farm pack insurance policies, livestock are not covered due to the mobile nature of stock, difficulties in verification and valuation, and the biological risks involved.
“More broadly, flood insurance costs are rising across the country due to the frequency and severity of flood events, inflation in the building and motor repair sectors, and the growing value of our assets.”
The local federal MP, Bob Katter – a former insurer before starting a 51-year political career in the Queensland and Australian parliaments – said insurers were right to be wary of risks.
“I had an insurance agency and quite a lucrative one,” he told AAP.
“I don’t like being stupid and for me to go out and demand the insurance companies provide cover, well, that would be stupid.”
Long a champion of public investment in his region, Mr Katter said a network of dams, making use of some of Australia’s strongest rivers, would temper floods and provide irrigation opportunities.
“The topography of Australia, that midwest black soil … it seals over and everything runs off which brings just colossal flooding,” he said.
“We have not got a single bloody dam in one million square kilometres.
“It doesn’t cost a lot of money and the bloody thing would pay for itself in the first 10 years in the irrigation farms it would create.”
On Wednesday, Rural Aid announced it had partnered with regional insurer WFI Insurance, as it begins an emergency hay-distribution effort to keep livestock alive.
“The hold-up so far has been road closures,” Rural Aid chief executive John Warlters told AAP.
“We also have a team of counsellors to help with the mental health and wellbeing piece, which is really important.”
AAP
