Voices of Berowra held their first official live event on the 11th of November at Magpies Waitara.
For the free event, VoB invited industry leaders Greg Mullen and Sharanjit Paddam to sit on a panel and discuss Bushfire Risk, Climate Inaction and Rising Insurance Premiums.
Well attended by the public, attendees asked questions about how they can move forward to lower their insurance, what can be done to reduce their fire risk around Berowra, and how the government should act.
Greg Mullens has more than 50 years’ experience as a firefighter. Retiring as the Commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW in January, Greg joined the rural fire brigade and fought fires during NSW’s notorious Black Summer. He formed Emergency Leaders for Climate Action in 2019, a group of fire and emergency chiefs from every state that are concerned about extreme weather driven by climate change.
Sharanjit Paddam is an actuary, working in the UK and Australia. He has been awarded Insurance Leader of the Year 2022 by ANZIIF, Actuary of the Year 2023 by the Actuaries Institute, and Risk Manager of the Year by the Climate Alliance in 2020. Now, he co-leads professional service firm Finity’s perils & climate practice pricing models and has co-authored reports for the Actuaries Institute on Home Insurance Affordability and Home Loans at Risk.
The panel was moderated by The Post’s Publisher, Tina Brown.
Greg Mullens touched on how there is a noticeable increase in weather conditions that lead to disasters.
‘The big weather years are more frequent,’ explains Greg Mullens. ‘That’s when you get fires … it is all weather driven, draught driven, temperature, humidity, wind speed. The fire seasons are also getting longer.’
With increased likelihood of disaster comes rising insurance rates. As risk of damage becomes certainty of damage, insurers will raise their premiums to account for loss. Previously, insurers had estimated premiums by postcode and pooled risk among the community, though insurers have since altered their approach to risk by specific address. As such, homeowners in the local region are finding it impossible to afford insurance.
‘There are people with unaffordable insurance all over Australia, but it is concentrated in … the Hawkesbury Nepean valley around Sydney,’ explains Sharanjit.
Greg and Sharanjit touched on how the government can act, how they have failed to act in relation to Black Summer, and the hope moving forward with insurers. Allowing the purchase of properties which for decades had been identified as high risk has exacerbated the heartache when disaster strikes. Policies such as buy-backs by the government are a slow-moving process, but the panel implored attendees to actively mitigate their own risk, installing sprinklers and having a private certification done for insurers to consider when calculating premiums.
For more information on Voices of Berowra – CLICK HERE
