Insurers stand ready to assist

MARCH 27, 2017: I'VE held discussions with the Insurance Council of Australia, as well as one of Queensland’s largest insurers Suncorp, today to discuss assistance measures for people dealing with the after-effects of cyclone and storm surge damage.Suncorp have advised me that they have teams on standby to be deployed on the ground and they are gearing up their call centre capacity to take higher numbers of claim calls in the wake of Cyclone Debbie.While we have to await the outcome of Cyclone Debbie to see just what the extent of the damage is to homes and businesses and crops in the Mackay, Whitsundays, Bowen and Burdekin regions, the Insurance Council  of Australia can also declare what they call an ‘insurance catastrophe’ depending on the number of people impacted.This would trigger a number of actions such as;

• The establishment of a taskforce (to be made up of all insurers with a claims footprint in the area) of senior insurance industry figures to address and identify any issues that arise
• Activation of a 24/7 disaster hotline to help policyholders who have general inquiries about the claims process, or queries about what insurer they are with
• Sending Insurance Council staff to work directly with affected policyholders

I’ll be staying in touch with these agencies in the days ahead to ensure the people of the North get the assistance they need following what looks like being a major cyclone and inundation event in our region.