Our August online FMA workshop provided an interactive session with Mr Karl Sullivan, Head of Risk and Operations for the Insurance Council of Australia.

Karl provided a history of insurance in Australia and the benefits of sharing flood data to more accurately assess risk which can then enable insurance companies to “sharpen their pencil” in calculating insurance premiums.

Also, the workshop included an excellent Q&A session which again illustrated the benefits of flood mitigation works such as flood levees to reduce flood damages and therefore enable reduced insurance premiums to property owners.

We often quote the example of Roma and St George in Queensland where the construction of flood levees has reduced the risk of flood damage and there has since been a reduction in insurance premiums of up to 70%.

The flipside of this means that without flood mitigation works, insurance premiums elsewhere will remain higher and therefore the 'mums and dads' property owners will actually be paying the price for the lack of mitigation works every year. Despite the current federal and state government investment in other infrastructure such as roads, rail, water supply and football stadiums, there has been no apparent increase in flood mitigation funding, so we can expect higher insurance premiums to continue to pay the price. It seems that the Productivity Commission recommendation in 2014 for increased investment in mitigation, has been forgotten.

Furthermore, just as an interesting thought, I recently attended a Flood Community of Practice workshop in Brisbane and discussed the current COVID-19 border closures with a representative of one of Australia’s most respected floodplain management consultants.

This consultancy would love to quote for projects interstate but can’t because of the lack of mobility caused by the border restrictions. This means that the current restrictions are hampering competition and may therefore be a further hidden cost of COVID-19 because of less competitive bids for projects around Australia in various industries, including floodplain management.

With all of us in the floodplain management space continuing to battle against these headwinds we can take heart in that we are still making progress in modelling, planning and mitigation for the communities we serve.

ID

Ian Dinham | FMA President