Melbourne storms declared an official catastrophe, bringing insured losses in Australia to $4.5 billion

Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, had turbulent Christmas Day as a series of severe storms impacted the city. The storms have caused a large amount of damage to businesses and the city’s energy infrastructure, according to insurer QBE. On the day of the storm, insurers fielded more than 15,000 claims and more have been trickling in over the past week. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared the storms an official catastrophe, making the event the eighth disaster declaration in the country in just under a year.…

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Australia Flood Insurance News: Local councils fear cost shifting for flood insurance

Australian local government has brought cost shifting to the surface once more as it looks like the federal government’s flood insurance costs will be sent to local councils. Though cities such as Canberra have supported local government decisions to remove state government cost shifting, the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has voiced its concerns regarding indications that the federal government is now considering putting the weight of flood risk insurance and carbon tax on local government shoulders. The ALGA has already been speaking out about its worries regarding the likely…

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Suncorp reveals how much they paid on Australia and New Zealand disasters this year

Earlier this year, Australia and New Zealand faced an onslaught of natural disasters that put strain on the two nation’s top insurer: Suncorp. Several estimates have been made as to how much the disasters cost the company, but Suncorp had not released any official statement regarding the issue. Yesterday, however, their silence was broken as the company hopes to improve its relationship with several reinsurance company in an effort to increase its profits for the 2011-12 fiscal year. According to Suncorp, the two devastating earthquakes that rocked New Zealand –…

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Forced place insurance for businesses in Austrailia

In light of the recent disasters befalling the nation, the Australian government may be setting up an inquiry to determine whether states should be forced to purchase commercial insurance policies to cover natural disasters. Legislators are currently pushing to pass a $1.8 billion deal that would help reconstruct levees. The possibility of an inquiry was raised when Treasurer Wayne Swan suggested that there “legitimate questions” about what states had done regarding insurance. Swan said that “it is probably timely for us to evaluate all of those questions, to have a…

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Australia looking at insurance premium increases

Many predict insurance rates to increase in upcoming years for Australians due to a relentless wave of natural disasters thrashing the countryside. How much of an increase is hard to say, analysts and insurance companies are calculating the total financial loss from the Queensland flood and Cyclone Yasi, and will adjust accordingly. Wild figures being thrown out of 30% rate increases have been talked down by Patrick Snowball, chief executive of the Suncorp Insurance Group, the largest insurer of Australia. Stating it’s still too early to tell but insurance companies…

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