"WE must all be a bunch of whingers. This is what the insurance industry and Australian Government Actuary, Peter Martin, would have us believe judging by the contents of the latest insurance whitewash. We pay around twice the average premiums of other Australians, Mr Martin’s Report on Home and Contents Insurance Prices in North Queensland tells us, and that the difference is consistent with the differences in the estimated cost of cyclone risk. “In my view, the estimated cost of cyclone risk is likely to be the main reason why NQ premium rates are, on average, significantly higher than premium rates in most other parts of Australia,” Mr Martin concludes. Indeed, cyclone risk, like typhoon and hurricane risk, is huge. Tropical storms comprise most of the top 10 biggest insurance losses of all time, such as Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005, which caused losses of $72 billion. Insurers fear a big cyclone hitting Townsville or Cairns will cause losses of $20 billion. Mr Martin’s report includes alarming findings that insurers are losing money by having a presence in the North or at least did so over the eight years to 2012-13, which was the period he studied. Insurers paid out $1.40 for every dollar collected in the region from Marlborough, near Rockhampton, to the tip of Cape York, he says. Even based on the higher 2012-13 premiums, the loss ratio would have been 100 per cent or $1 paid out for every $1 collected, he says. Watch out for more insurance hikes to come. He gives no actual dollar figures but it is interesting to estimate that the North Queensland home and contents insurance market could be worth, say, $500 million a year. That would mean insurers paid out $4 billion in claims over eight years in North Queensland. It is difficult to see how this insurance dilemma can be resolved. Obviously, much more can be done in mitigation, such as strengthening our buildings to make them less vulnerable to storm damage. But telling people our premiums are consistent with risk when some cannot even get insurance is harsh."