Jennifer Pittorino
Six Maribyrnong residents impacted by the 2022 floods recently presented their stories to a Federal Parliamentary Inquiry, although members of the Maribyrnong Community Recovery Association (MCRA) feel the process was unfair.
MCRA chief executive Madeleine Serle attended the public hearings into the response of insurers held at the Maidstone Community Centre on April 17.
The hearing, convened look into the interaction between flood victims and insurance companies, was chaired by Fraser MP Daniel Mulino.
Ms Serle said while the personal stories heard by the inquiry were powerful “there were issues with the way it was handled”.
Given only two weeks’ notice about the hearing, Ms Serle said she felt it was an inadequate amount of time to prepare statements.
“I think it reflects the insurance experience generally, but because of this I am calling for a complete overhaul of the way that the insurance industry is regulated in Australia.
“At the moment in Maribyrnong people are still not in their homes, they are still waiting for repairs, they’re still fighting with insurance and that is absolutely disgraceful. We think the insurance companies got a better deal as they were invited to Canberra over a series of days in March with all the formality of presenting to the committee. They would have had the assistance of corporate teams in their own organisations, they would have had months, whereas poor customers who are stuck renting houses got two weeks’ notice.”
The Insurance Council of Australia (ASIC) said it acknowledged there were failures of systems, processes and resourcing in response to the 2022 floods.
“It has been acknowledged by ASIC and other industry stakeholders during the Parliamentary Inquiry that claims handling generally was under strain, in part due to the impacts of external forces such as weather events, skilled worker shortages and supply chain issues putting significant pressure on the resources of insurers,” ASIC said.
“The industry has been looking closely at the issues of concern, including claims handling, and work is underway to drive improvements to customer and community outcomes. ”
A spokesperson for Mr Mulino said “it was important to hear from insurers early so that we could test their evidence during the course of the inquiry”.
“To put things in context: the peak body for the insurance industry, the ICA, and seven insurance companies were each given about 90 minutes to explain their responses to the 303,407 claims generated by the four big flood events of 2022. The largest component of the committee’s public consultation is being devoted to community public hearings.”
