I know I've been quiet for a few months due to health reasons but I am still lobbying State and Federal. M Queensland Parliament Hansard Green DATE: 07/09/2017 FILE: 07092017_000290_LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY_GREEN CHAMBER.DOCX SUBJECT: Insurance MEMBER: Mr COSTIGAN Insurance Mr COSTIGAN (Whitsunday—LNP) (2.57 pm): Today in the House I call upon the Australian insurance industry to lift its game in the wake of shocking revelations that I continue to hear every day as I pound the pavement in my electorate of Whitsunday in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Debbie. When I gave my maiden speech in this House I referred to ‘the forgotten people', in the words of Sir Robert Menzies. If you go around the Whitsundays—from Preston to Proserpine and from Dingo Beach to Airlie Beach—you will find plenty of forgotten people. These people have been paying their insurance premiums—through the nose, invariably—for a long time. Despite what we heard from the Insurance Council of Australia recently, these people have been badly let down. A public forum hosted by the ICA was held in Proserpine on 7 July. I remember walking out there on the night when I was going to another function at the museum. I said to the ICA, ‘Why the heck are you doing this on a Friday night, when people normally have a beer, have dinner with their kids or stay at home to watch the football?' I gave them a spray. Guess what? Thank goodness, they are coming back with some key insurers to listen to real people with real issues—people who are hurting in my community. They have mental health and all sorts of other issues. They need certainty, clarity and a fair go. Thankfully, the ICA and key insurers are coming to Proserpine, Cannonvale, Hideaway Bay and Dingo Beach this coming weekend. I mention Debbie Cartmell from Proserpine, Carle and Sam Parkhill from Myrtlevale north of Proserpine, Gary Hughes—I caught up with him recently, literally on Whitsunday Passage—and Sue and Wayne Quantock from Bloomsbury. These are just a few of the real people who are waiting to see a scope of works and some action. They do not know what is going on; they are in no-man's-land. It is disgraceful, as our community comes to terms with the reality of dealing with the effects of Cyclone Debbie. Our Main Roads office looks like it got bombed during the war and it is frustrating for local people. It was destroyed. We are not seeing any progress from the Palaszczuk Labor government or a commitment to build another TMR office. There are people who have been burnt from insurance getting together on Saturday in Cannonvale. I look forward to meeting these people because they are hurting and I am trying to help my constituents as best I can. The insurance industry needs to pull up its socks but so too does the Palaszczuk Labor government, because Canberra gave $14½ million a couple of years ago to the Queensland government to assist with the assessment on strata properties in terms of property risk assessment and that money is just sitting there somewhere. Minister de Brenni knows all about this and Margaret Shaw, who has been a great consumer advocate in the Whitsundays and a former citizen of the year, knows all about it. When she talks people listen, and that money is there to try and make things a little bit easier for people who have had an absolute gutful after overpaying for insurance. It is about time something happened.