The lack of discussion about natural disaster resilience has been a “glaring gap” during the federal election campaign, independent MP Zali Steggall told an industry breakfast today.

Ms Steggall said she has been asked during the campaign if cost of living is the focus for this election and climate is “further down the page” of issues.

“There is no such thing as one or the other,” the MP for Warringah in NSW told the National Insurance Brokers Association pre-election breakfast. “Climate risk is an economic risk that we have to manage, and it’s not a distant concern, it’s very much here.”  

Ms Steggall said the issue has been highlighted by the Los Angeles fires and the insurance protection gap in California, but political leaders have not presented proposals for keeping Australian communities safe.

“It’s been a very glaring gap in the discussion. On the eve of an election, I haven’t heard any significant commitments from either leader around what are they genuinely going to do to mitigate that climate risk and build that resilience and adaptation.”

Ms Steggall, who has proposed a $10 billion climate resilience fund and legislation for a national adaptation plan, also said major parties are overlooking the issue in plans to lift housing supply.

“The cheapest house is the house you only build once, so let’s make sure we build it right, we build it with energy efficiency and climate resilience. Yet every policy announcement around increasing supply for building has failed to make a precondition that it should be climate resilient.”

Ms Steggall was critical of a Liberal policy to reduce building regulatory red tape by freezing further changes to the National Construction Code for 10 years.

“What that means is you have a whole sector of homes that will be built that will not be adapted to the times. That is reckless negligence.”

Speakers at the sold-out breakfast in Sydney also included Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones, who is not seeking re-election for Labor, and NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg.

Mr Jones, speaking first at the event, said Australia must stop building homes in high-risk locations, and that climate change is acting as a multiplier, putting more areas in danger.

“A serious policy around insurance affordability has got to deal with risk mitigation, but it’s also got to deal with the big, long-term and global impacts of climate change,” he said.

“We’re focusing on this as a government and we’re trying to get a co-ordinated approach across state and territory governments and local governments around land use planning.”

Mr Jones says data sets are being improved to enhance mitigation through the Hazards Insurance Partnership, while state and federal conversations are needed around reducing taxes on insurance.

“We can’t deny the fact that stamp duty is a significant revenue source for cash-strapped state governments, but we also need to acknowledge that if people are underinsured, then governments are underwriters of last resort and they are picking up the bill somewhere else in the equation,” he said. 

“We’ve got to have a conversation about that, and I think we need to create the environment to make a sensible conversation possible.”

Senator Bragg said the Coalition wants to reduce insurance costs primarily through deregulation and mitigation, ahead of any forced break-up of companies.

“We would look only to that extreme measure [divestment] if there were ongoing failings in the sector – it’s not the first tool you take out of the bag,” he said.

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