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ICA pushes for flood data access

Access to local government flood data for Moreton Bay Regional Council and the City of Gold Coast would allow for more accurate pricing of premiums in the two Queensland precincts, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says.

They are the only two areas left in the state where insurers are still relying on secondary data to assess flood risk, according to ICA Head of Risk and Operations Karl Sullivan.

“In both locations, insurers must rely upon sources other than official flood data, introducing uncertainty and limiting capacity to recognise mitigation measures,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Sharing the data with insurers would be “helping residents by allowing premiums to more precisely reflect official data.”

More than half of all land parcels in the Gold Coast may be exposed to some level of flooding, and about 24% of land sites in Moreton face a similar risk, industry estimates suggest.

The ICA has been reviewing the status of flood data for each state, with Queensland the first on the list.