Flooding complaint
The group's insurance chief executive, Mark Milliner, responded after Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale last week accused the industry of refusing to pay out millions of dollars to flood victims while posting growing profits.
Floods have wreaked havoc in Queensland, only two years after the 2011 deluge.
Mr Milliner, who is also president of the Insurance Council of Australia, said Suncorp had lost a lot of money in insurance claims from towns it had since stopped selling flood cover policies to, such as Roma and Emerald in Queensland.
"In Roma over the past three years from a business perspective we've probably collected about $4 million in premiums and spent about $150 million in claims," he told ABC TV's Inside Business. "I think from a broad public and private sector we've spent nearly half a billion dollars in fixing up infrastructure, schools as well as homes up there."
A levee could have been built in the town eight years ago for $2 million, he said, but would now cost $15 million.
A levee is planned for Roma, where the average insurance premium has jumped to $3000, compared with nearby Tylerville, which has a $1200 average but also a flood levee.
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Suncorp’s insurance CEO Mark Milliner said local government could have taken earlier flood-protection steps — for example building a levee years ago — which would have cost far less then and could have limited claims. He argued that the public and private sectors have since spent heavily repairing infrastructure, schools and homes after repeated Queensland floods.
The article specifically names Roma and Emerald in Queensland as towns where Suncorp has since stopped selling flood cover policies.
Mark Milliner said that in Roma, over the past three years Suncorp collected about $4 million in premiums and paid about $150 million in claims.
The article notes a levee could have been built in Roma eight years ago for about $2 million but would now cost around $15 million, illustrating how delay raises protection costs.
According to the article, Roma’s average insurance premium has jumped to about $3,000, while nearby Tylerville — which has a flood levee — has an average premium of about $1,200.
Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale accused the insurance industry of refusing to pay out millions to flood victims while reporting growing profits. Suncorp’s Mark Milliner responded by saying Suncorp had actually lost large sums on claims from towns it later removed flood cover in, and stressed the role of government in flood protection.
Mark Milliner is Suncorp’s insurance chief executive and is also identified in the article as the president of the Insurance Council of Australia.
The article highlights that severe floods can lead to very large insurance claims and higher premiums in affected towns, and that infrastructure decisions (like whether a levee is built) can change costs and risk profiles. For investors, this underscores that natural-disaster exposure, claim volatility and local mitigation measures are important factors when assessing insurers.
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