Policyholders consider legal action against insurers

Issue 

Householders and small businesses who were victims of the floods that hit Brisbane in January are considering a legal challenge against insurance companies “using region-wide hydrology reports to deny thousands of flood-related claims”, the March 10 Courier Mail said.

Insurers NRMA, CGU and Comminsure have used the reports to claim many policyholders were subject to riverine flooding, which is not covered by most insurance policies, rather than stormwater or flash-flooding.

Legal Aid Queensland lawyer Catherine Uhr told the Courier Mail: “You’d be insane not to challenge a refusal that's so general.”

Griffith University academic Paul Williams put the case for the revival of a public, state-wide insurance system to tackle the challenge of future natural disasters in Queensland.

In the March 8 Courier Mail, Williams said: “No doubts insurance is needed, but how can it be provided equitably and affordably?

“The answer might lie in a concept so alien to modern economics that most will scoff. What about the re-establishment of an all-encompassing state-owned insurance house?

“Remember the State Government Insurance Office? Founded under the Ryan Labor government's Workers' Compensation Act of 1916, SGIO provided an array of indemnities on the principle that insurance was a family necessity, like bread and milk, and that its delivery should be considered a government service for working families, and not a private licence to print money.

“The state insurance arm served Queensland well for more than seven decades. Perhaps it's time to reinvent the insurance wheel.”

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