Alice Springs residents are facing skyrocketing insurance premiums in suburbs not traditionally considered flood zones.
The local Todd River and its tributary, Charles Creek, are usually dry but when filled with enough rain from the catchment just north of the town could wreak havoc on properties.
John Gaynor lives in the west-side suburb Gillen, in an area that is not considered part of the flood zone according to Northern Territory government flood maps.
However, after receiving a $6,000 premium increase from his insurer, the once government-owned TIO, he became aware of the discrepancies in mapping.
"We went from [premiums of] $2,300 to $8,900," he said.
"[The company was] not prepared to give me any information other than that, they had new flood maps done and that's what the actuaries came up with."
He said he was gobsmacked at the price hike and was denied access to the company's flood mapping as it was commercial in confidence.
Premiums rising around country
Insurance Council of Australia CEO Andrew Hall said premiums were increasing partly due to more areas being deemed a flood risk, and partly due to other factors driving up costs across Australia.
He said those included increases in material and labour costs, as well as worker shortages.
"In in this inflationary environment, insurance premiums are not immune to that issue," he said.
Mr Hall said insurance companies' flood maps were more accurate than publicly available government maps.
"It's simply wrong in this day and age that you can't access very easily the correct, up-to-date flood maps," he said.
"It's the one thing we have been calling for across this country, [to improve] the way we map and make data available for the average Australian trying to buy a home."
Flood mitigation
Mr Hall said for consumers to make informed decisions, there needed to be a centralised database for people to access accurate government-funded flood mapping for their town, not mapping paid for by insurance companies.
"These are commercial assets that an insurer owns and if they spend all the money on developing and then making that public, it gives access to all of their competitors," he said.
"If it's about the risk of your town, you should be asking your government as to how much money they're investing in doing that mapping themselves."
Mr Hall called on the Northern Territory government to talk to the federal government about accessing a disaster preparation fund to do work in places like Alice Springs.
He used Roma in regional Queensland as an example where no-one could be insured until the state government stepped in.
"The government invested $28 million and built a brand new levy around Roma. These days the insurance market has normalised," he said.
"Whenever you reduce the risk, you bring insurance back into the market."
