They don’t make disasters like they used to: How bill for Queensland’s catastrophes is getting bigger
A re-evaluation of Queensland’s worst natural disasters has shown the cost of them occurring today would blow out by almost $30 billion, according to the Insurance Council.
There are fears that cyclone Jasper has the capacity to become as destructive as Cyclone Yasi. (file image)
While the south east Queensland and northern NSW floods of 2022 remains the biggest disaster in terms of costs ($6 billion) a hail storm in Brisbane in 1985 which cost $180 million in damage would cost $3.75 billion today.
And a similar storm in Sydney in 1999 would take first place in disaster costs with a bill of $8.8 billion. Cyclone Tracy, which hit Darwin in 1974, would cost $7.4 billion today compared with its cost then of $200 million.
The re-evaluation was done to put the real damage done by the natural events in perspective. The median home insurance cost in Queensland is $3032 a year, the second highest in Australia behind the Northern Territory. The national median is about $1900.
It also showed how Queensland has to carry the huge costs of the disasters. The cost of the eight worst disasters in Queensland was about $9 billion when it was tallied after each event. In today’s dollars and impacts it would be about $37 billion.
The re-evaluation took into account inflation, changes in property values and numbers and stricter building codes.
The council said it showed how there was a need for more investment in resilience and mitigation. It also claimed it showed that councils had to stop allowing development on flood plains and a broadening of the housing buyback schemes to move people out of danger.
In 2022, there were more than 300,000 disaster-related claims lodged for four events in Australia. The cost was $7.28 billion, most of which came from the floods that hit south east Queensland and northern NSW.
Insurance Council chief executive Andrew Hall said the impact of disasters in the past year was well down on the record, but the more benign weather should not provide false hope.
“This new data shows that when – not if – extreme weather events strike large population centres in the future we can expect them to have a greater impact and be more costly, making the case for risk mitigation even more pressing,” Hall said.
“We can’t wait until disaster strikes. We need to act now by investing more to make communities more resilient, reform land-use planning and building codes and in some cases move people and homes out of danger altogether.”
According to the council, the 2011 floods in Brisbane would cost $1.83 billion today compared with $1.36 billion when it occurred. Cyclone Elaine which struck in 1967 and cost just $12 million in damage would cost $2.7 billion today.
Cyclone Debbie in 1975 cost $2.1 billion but would cost $5 billion today.
