In the heart of the storm RACQ Insurance chief Tracy Green is ready for an active summer as pressures rise in northern regions By Wendy Pugh
W
ith affordability stresses and natural disaster impacts rising in Australia’s north, RACQ Insurance is in the eye of the storm and a leading voice in the industry’s calls for improved resilience and measures that deliver lasting community benefits. As a major player in Queensland’s personal lines sector, the insurer has experienced some of Australia’s worst catastrophes in the past decade, including Cyclone Yasi and the 2011 Brisbane floods. And risks are high this year for another active summer. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared its first catastrophe for this season after giant hailstones struck southeast Queensland at the end of October, and the Bureau of Meteorology has warned a rain-inducing La Nina system is set to persist for the next few months. RACQ Group Executive Insurance Tracy Green, who took up the role formally mid-year, says planning has been done for the coming season, while the company is also focusing on longer-term resilience issues as it continues to offer cover across the state. “We don’t red-line anywhere, so we offer insurance at the appropriate price and we spend quite a lot of time talking with our members to ensure we understand the risk,” she told Insurance News. Ms Green lives in Cairns in Far North Queensland, travelling to her Brisbane head office and regional areas as required. So she is more aware than most of the natural catastrophe risks the region carries, and the related insurance issues of premium affordability and the need for mitigation strategies. “We obviously support mitigation and private mitigation coming through, so we have discounts built into the premiums where people have upgraded the property,” she says. “North Queensland is obviously near and
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dear to my heart, given I live here.” RACQ’s submission to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements backed the industry case for government spending on mitigation, improved building codes, retrofitting measures and better land-use planning. The submission highlighted the Townsville suburb of Idalia, adjoining the Ross River, as an example of recent development in a high-risk location that was then hit by flooding. Ms Green says there’s a need to stop building properties in floodplains and to address shortcomings at existing properties. “When we have a look at Townsville and see what has transpired there, we can take a lot of lessons into the future,” she says. “Certainly there are opportunities to build up greater resilience for those properties over time. The Townsville mayor, for example, is very focused on what that might look like into the future.” RACQ’s annual review last year described the February 2019 Townsville flooding, triggered by days of torrential rain, as the second-biggest insurance event in the group’s history, with an estimated cost of $115 million. The catastrophe and rising premiums reignited pressure from some groups for a government-backed pool to improve affordability in the tropical north. Federal Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar decided to take another look and called on insurers to assist with inquiries. Ms Green says RACQ Insurance is happy to have a seat at the table as the issues are considered and practicalities explored, but warns that (re)insurance pools are not ideal and mitigation needs to remain the focus alongside any other affordability action. “We will always have a view that building the
