The voices of firefighters have echoed with the public for further funding from the Federal Government.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is, without doubt, a catastrophic situation the country is in.
Fires started burning earlier this year and, as I write this, there are 129 incidents listed on the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) website (November 13), growing from 113 the previous day.
There were more than 2000 firefighters in the field today.
It's not unbelievable that 'fires near me' was the most searched phrase by Australians on Google in 2019.
But while people are furious at Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the federal government for not providing more resources, perhaps we should cast our net a little wider.
As of December 10, 724 homes were destroyed, 276 homes damaged, and the RFS volunteers saved 5653 homes, including my mother and father's.
More than 1500 outbuildings were destroyed and more than 5000 saved.
Now let's do some quick estimations and basic mathematics on the homes saved.
It is, without doubt, a catastrophic situation the country is in ... It's not unbelievable that 'fires near me' was the most searched phrase by Australians on Google in 2019.
If each home was insured for $250,000, that would have cost insurance companies a whopping $1,413,240,000 (or a lot of zeros), less the homes that were lost, totalling $181,000,000 (a few less zeros). Still a hefty figure.
Presently, insurance companies dip their toe into payments towards the fire and emergency services levy, with foreign insured policy holders and local governments.
Most of the cost is recovered through insurance premiums and embedded in council rates.
Local councils pay 11.7 per cent of the costs for fire and emergency services in NSW.
Meantime, insurers' contributions are based on the premiums paid in the previous financial year.
In 2018/19 the total industry premiums (excluding GST and duty) was $9,425,831,841 and the amount subject to contribution was $2,862,813,877.
Can you see where this is going?
Even a mere fraction of the money that the RFS volunteers save for insurance companies would amount to so much new equipment, infrastructure, and resources.
Maybe the answer is the state government requesting further contributions, or a donation of annual bonuses, from insurers paid towards the levy, and do this without hiking insurance payments.
Because we, the public, are fighting to keep the state from burning and we are also the people paying for it.
