Say Goodbye to Insurance, By Bob Farmer, Dairy Farmer
With things tighter than normal on the land, just before the end of last financial year the insurance for the farm came, and I almost fell through the floor. Fortunately, my wife Betty was there to grab me just in time before I disappeared. An increase by thousands of dollars. Why? There are manty reasons such as reinsurance costs and inflation. But climate change is emerging as a big factor that will ultimately lead to one in ten Australian properties becoming uninsurable:
"One in 10 properties in Australia are expected to be uninsurable within the next decade, according to climate change risk analysis modelling.
The latest calculations from Climate Valuation analysts found about 380,000 properties in Australia were either uninsurable or unaffordable to insure, equating to about one in every 20 homes.
That figure was expected to increase to one in 10 within the next decade, according to the firm's latest data.
Climate Valuation chief executive Karl Mallon said the rate at which houses were deemed uninsurable was increasing.
"All of this, unfortunately, is rolling out like clockwork, just as has been predicted in the climate models," Dr Mallon said.
"It's sad to say that since the 1980s we've said this is what's going to happen and it's happening just as predicted, if not a little bit faster and a little bit worse.
'It's going to get a lot worse'
Community lawyer Denis Nelthorpe said home owners in rural and regional Australian areas prone to extreme weather events had been priced out of the market.
"There is no doubt an increasing proportion of rural and regional Australia is becoming uninsurable under the current system," Mr Nelthorpe said.
"There's lots of people being told that we won't cover you for flood, if you want flood cover it's going to be $20,000.
"Now in my view that is not a serious offer, that is code for 'you're uninsurable'."
It is not just weather disasters on Australian shores that are influencing pricing.
The devastating Californian wildfires are potentially set to impact Australian premiums, according to the Australia Institute.
"The reinsurers covering LA they are going to be quite out of pocket as a result of all of this and so they are going to look to recover their costs," senior research fellow David Richardson told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"We may think that's unfair that we in Australia would be subsidising insurance in LA but in fact we are all subject to the same global influences.
"So the insurance companies also know that if things are getting more severe and intense in LA they are getting more severe and intense around the world, whether it's floods in Queensland or fires in Victoria."
As the companies are global, like everything else, the LA fires are set to drive insurance prices through the roof now.
Thus, last financial year did not insure. I could not afford it, and I figured that insurance is a bet, and if the companies are willing to gamble, they know the odds are in favour of nothing happening. So, I doubled up on land clearing for fire prevention and will do so each season, getting on without insurance.
Welcome to life uninsured!
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