The ACCC’s Final Report on its Northern Australia Insurance Inquiry has been released at last and, among other things, it rightly reiterates a recommendation made in previous reports to (on p. xxiii):

Abolish stamp duty on home, contents and strata insurance products

The governments of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland should abolish stamp duties on home, contents and strata insurance products. State and territory revenue needs could be more equitably met through other means.

While the main reason home insurance premiums are higher in Northern Australia is the risk of cyclones and flooding, having stamp duties on insurance products levied on the premium paid doesn’t help and adds substantially to the cost. Eyeballing Figure 3.37 on p. 56 of the Final Report, it appears stamp duty is adding around $200 to the average cost of home and contents insurance in North Queensland.

The state government receives $65 million per annum from stamp duty on home, contents, and strata insurance policies in North Queensland (see Table 3.7 on p. 56), so, if it were going to abolish it state-wide, such a move would cost several hundreds of millions of dollars and, hence, may be unattractive to a fiscally challenged state government. The ACCC has thought of this, and notes state governments could instead make stamp duty proportional to the property value rather than the insurance premium, in a revenue-neutral fashion, a change which would still see the bulk of NQ households paying lower insurance premiums.

The state government should seriously consider the ACCC’s proposed changes to stamp duty on home, contents, and strata insurance. Reading over all the ACCC’s recommendations, which include a range of improved transparency and disclosure measures among other things, a cut in stamp duty appears to be the recommended action most likely to generate some significant savings for North Queenslanders on insurance products.

Note I am assuming the federal government won’t choose to directly subsidise insurance premiums in Northern Australia, which the ACCC isn’t necessarily recommending, but says would be preferable to the government acting as a reinsurer (see Recommendation 8.1 on p. xxiv).

Let’s hope North Queenslanders can see some real relief on home insurance costs. They certainly need insurance given the huge damage that cyclones can bring. I well remember growing up in Townsville and hearing from my family members just how bad Cyclone Althea on Christmas Eve in 1971 was (see image below), and how important it was to be prepared for another cyclone. I recall various preparations such as taping up windows and some very heavy winds and rain several times in the eighties, but luckily Townsville was spared a direct hit when I was growing up there. Given the population growth in North Queensland which has occurred since the seventies, a direct hit of a cyclone on a large city would be even more devastating and costly nowadays.