Greens want end to insurance stamp duty as natural disasters grow
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The news: The Greens want an end to stamp duty on home and car insurance amid a rise in natural disasters, as part of a plan it says is designed to tackle climate change.
The context: The package, which Greens climate spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi will unveil on Wednesday, also includes expanding the reinsurance pool on cyclones to cover all natural disasters.
The Greens have expanded their pre-election suite of ‘Robin Hood’ taxes, and coal and gas companies would be required to contribute to the reinsurance pool and the Disaster Ready Fund.
Citing costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), the Greens said stamp duty changes alone would return over $4 billion “back in people’s pockets across Australia in the first year”.
But the PBO costings accept that it was unable to “quantify the financial impacts” of expanding the reinsurance pool due to “the significant uncertainty around the severity and frequency of natural disasters”.
It did not do any assessments on the relative risk of natural disasters in different areas, which would affect the impact of premiums paid for different policies, and did not assess the legal framework for enforcing the policy on coal and gas companies.
The proposal also includes an extra $5 million for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to establish a new insurance premium pricing monitor.
Another $10 million would be contributed in 2025-26 to create an “public, authoritative” risk map for the public to see areas that are at high, moderate and low risk of being struck by natural disasters.
Faruqi will unveil the policy in the northern NSW seat of Richmond, which Greens leader Adam Bandt has publicly declared a target for the party as it looks to expand on gains made at the last election.
Labor MP Justine Elliott holds the seat with a comfortable margin, though the Greens achieved a first-preference swing of nearly 5% there in 2022.
What they said: “The Greens will make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share to make insurance cheaper for everyday people,” Faruqi said in a statement.
“With more Greens in parliament ... we will end new coal and gas.”
The source: Mehreen Faruqi press release
