Australians priced out of insurance or underinsured will not be forgotten by the federal government as the flood clean-up begins in far north Queensland.
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The region is grappling with the devastation of ex-tropical cyclone Jasper, which crossed the coast mid-last week.
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government was considering options to help people who did not have insurance or were underinsured.
"We're working through what we can do to assist those people as well to ensure that nobody's left behind as we make the big clean-up effort," the minister told ABC Radio on Friday.
Households and businesses were already able to access immediate disaster relief payments and this support would remain available over the medium term.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier Steven Miles announced a joint $64 million assistance package when visiting the flood-hit areas on Friday, in addition to the disaster relief payments.
This included $25 million in grants for primary producers, $25 million for small business and not-for-profits, $9 million for eligible councils and $5 million for tourism operators.
Further assistance was also under consideration by the federal and state governments.
Rates of non-insurance and underinsurance have been rising as coverage becomes more expensive, especially for those living in flood-prone areas.
Mr Jones said it was important insurance was tuned to appropriately provide assistance and cover risk in a changing climate.
"What we're experiencing in Australia is part of a global phenomenon with reinsurers and global insurers starting to factor in the impact of climate change," he said.
He said disaster resilience was central to the government's role in managing insurance affordability and accessibility, which includes building the right infrastructure, carefully locating suburbs, and appropriately designed homes.
Insurance Council of Australia chief operating officer Kylie Macfarlane said the only way to bring down insurance premiums in the long term was government investment in mitigation.
"To ensure that the right floodways are in place, that building standards are in place, that land use planning is being considered and we're not building homes in harm's way," she told ABC Radio on Friday.
She said owners should be incentivised to upgrade their homes and make them more resilient to floods.
Ms Macfarlane addressed concerns the national $10 billion plan reinsurance pool meant policy makers had a 48-hour deadline to make a claims.
"The reinsurance pool has no impact on their ability to make a claim, have that claim assessed, and based on an assessment, have that claim paid," she said.
"People should not be worried about the reinsurance pool at all."
About 4600 claims have been made in a relation to tropical cyclone Jasper and subsequent flooding, with most of those lodged by home and contents policy holders.
Ms Macfarlane said it was difficult to estimate a dollar figure on the event while it was still unfolding, but hoped to have an approximation by the end of next week.
More than a week after arriving as a cyclone, Jasper is still impacting the far north with Kowanyama in the remote Cape York now on high alert.
Major flooding is set to impact the community from Saturday with vulnerable residents evacuated to Cairns as a precaution.
Australian Associated Press
