A report into strata insurance in North Queensland has found that premium rates are not unreasonable, contrary to the claims of Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch. 

The titled The Second Report into Strata Title Insurance Price Rises in North Queensland, was released by the Australian Government Actuary.

found that premiums had risen for several factors including ‘historical under-pricing’ and natural disasters.

The report takes in an eight-year period of data starting in 2005-6 and compares North Queensland strata insurance to other population centres across northern Australia.

It finds that historical pricing for strata insurance was ‘simply too low’ for North Queensland, and that claims costs for providers were both higher and more volatile compared to other regions due to cyclone risk. 

The document also states that premiums in other east coast cities were on average about one-fifth of what north Queensland insurers charged. 

Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch, who had predicted the report to be damning of insurers operating in Far North Queensland, rejected many of its findings. 

“This stuff about historical under-pricing doesn’t wear,” Mr Entsch told The Newsport.

“It is clear there has been a market failure - we don’t have floods up here, yet in Brisbane on the floodplain it’s five times cheaper for insurance.

“The Actuary has only sourced this information from the insurance agencies themselves, not from local people who actually live here and deal with these costs.”

A media liason from the Treasury Department said the views of locals were ‘not relevant’ in the context of the report.

Australian Accommodation Managers Association North Queensland representative Mick Whalen echoed Mr Entsch’s views and said that insurance was one of the biggest costs facing accommodation providers in Northern Queensland. 

Mr Whalen, who also operates Nautilus Holiday Apartments in Port Douglas, said the main insurance companies in the region were overcharging customers.

“Outside of wages I would say it’s easily the biggest cost most of us have,” he said. 

“And not all of it is even necessary - we’re currently paying about $17,000 a year, if we had gone with our old insurer’s plan the same way from last year we’d be paying about $20,000.

“There were nearly $3000 worth of cover and fees that were basically completely uncessary in there.”

Mr Entsch said the Federal Governmetn was developing a website that would aggregate insurance provider information, the concept of which had insurers ‘jumping up and down’.

“They hate the idea of the aggregator website,” Mr Entsch said.

“It’s going to lift the cloak and remove all the smoke and mirrors they’ve been playing with.”