“I’M NOT surprised, but I am disappointed there are still this many issues here.”
That is the message from Insurance Council of Australia chief, Andrew Hall, after his visit to Casterton, last week.
At the invitation of Wannon MP, Dan Tehan, Mr Hall spent two hours with residents who still had issues with insurance claims, more than five months after the October hailstorm which ravaged the town.
“Through Dan Tehan’s office we have been provided a lot of information and I think sometimes the key is coming and seeing people face to face and I think when you get events like Casterton here, there’s a confluence of events that’s leading to not good outcomes,” Mr Hall said.
“We’ll then go back to the relevant insurers, I’ll speak to (Australian Financial Complaints Authority) and a few other people in the support universe and see if we cannot get things moving along.”
He said while he had seen situations like this previously, the ratio of outstanding claims to population affected was concerning and pointed to Casterton’s distance from any major cities, as the likely cause.
“It’s a big deal, it’s significant,” Mr Hall said.
“In my time I have seen it happen in a couple of communities and generally it happens where you see distance from centres where you can get people quickly from, where you can source temporary accommodation.
“Here I’m hearing assessors are coming from different parts of Adelaide and elsewhere.
“I do not like hearing these stories where people are being let down by insurers so it’s obviously not great to sit and hear all those stories today
“That’s why our commitment is to try and get this solved
“Every event is different and I see out of every event there are lessons that have resulted in changes.
“We’re just implemented changes to claims processing rules through the Covid practice review, but I’m seeing a confluence of events here.
“It’s just a small town, hit hard, distance from centres and all the rest.
“I think we need to make sure the insurers are fully alert to it and treat the claims that are outstanding to this region with priority.”
Mr Hall said another issue arising with insurance policies, particularly in regional centres, was an ‘ageing building stock’, which added to the difficulties in insurance claims.
“I think what happens often in regional towns you come across the issues of wear and tear and maintenance and these are problems in Australia we have got, that we’re going to need to start thinking about what we’re doing with this ageing building stock,” he said.
“How do we help people understand what maintenance looks like and all the rest.
“I think that, combined with when people have got vulnerabilities … I think if you have you can be the most capable person and have an insurance loss and be at loss to try and work out how to get everything organised, it makes things difficult.”
At Mr Tehan’s request, Mr Hall committed to pursuing the attendance of relevant insurance companies in Casterton, to meet with residents face-to-face.
“When we understand there is a concentration of issues in one community like this, we can find ways of bringing the insurers to town and do face-to-face to get this resolved it’s all resolvable,” he said.
“I’m going to do my best, my teams are currently in Queensland unfortunately, at the moment we have got 78,000 claims in the south-east corner of Queensland … I will do my best to get the insurers here sooner, rather than later.”
Anyone who was unable to attend the meeting, but still has insurance concerns arising from the hail incident, can collect a complaint form, issued by Dan Tehan’s office, from the Casterton News.
The forms can also be returned to the mail box, at the News office, for forwarding to Mr Tehan.
