Climate change is sending farm insurance skyrocketing, as the Senate Inquiry Into The Impact of Climate Risk on Insurance Premiums and Availability winds up this week.
Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) CEO Natalie Collard said farmers impacted by flood, drought and bushfires within FCA's own 8300-strong membership had said it was often the second or third extreme weather event which sent farmers broke.
"Farmers have told us they're taking the risk of not insuring their farms at all because the insurance costs are now too high," Ms Collard said.
"Many farmers tell us they don't want to speak out about this. You can't protect your farm without insurance but the insurance is too expensive for the farm business. Farm insurance is needed now more than ever, yet is more out of reach than ever.
"We need deep pollution reduction this decade to protect our farmers and our food supply.
"Bushfires, floods and droughts are more severe and occur more often because pollution is changing the climate. We can't expect farmers to keep paying more and more when the environment they farm in is more and more risky. As Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action CEO Serena Joyner said, 'you don't put a fire out by pouring petrol on it'. The BOM State of the Climate Report 2020 showed we had ten times as many extreme fire danger days in the decade of the 2010s than we did in the 1960s.
"When insurance goes up, the cost of food produced by farmers goes up too, and that means families pay more for food at the supermarket checkout."
Harden, NSW farmer Peter Holding said climate change was sending his insurance costs "through the roof".
"My insurance bill here jumped 20% last year. What's really scary is the price is going up when we haven't had any bad disasters here in the past five years."
FCA noted the following quotes from the inquiry from Kylie McFarlane, Chief Operating Officer, Insurance Council of Australia.
"Industry and governments need to continue to tackle the underlying driver of worsening extreme weather, climate change, by maintaining a focus on achieving net zero by 2050 with a focus on driving down emissions this decade.
"The widening gap between those who can afford insurance and those who can not… is an issue that we need to address collectively."
"In 2022 alone insurers paid out over $7bn in extreme weather claims from 302,000 claims."
