A roundtable is set to bring together the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), federal and state politicians, local government, and regional insurers to examine insurance affordability and flood risk in Wagga Wagga – a city whose residents have watched premiums climb despite a major levee upgrade.
ICA CEO Andrew Hall, Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack, State Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, Mayor Cr Dallas Tout, and Wagga Wagga City Council representatives have all been invited to attend. The agenda covers insurance affordability, flood mapping, mitigation infrastructure, and practical measures to improve outcomes for residents and businesses across the Riverina.
Wagga Wagga completed a $23 million levee upgrade in 2020, designed to provide the CBD with a 1% annual exceedance probability (AEP) level of flood protection. The upgrade was incorporated into the National Flood Information Database (NFID), and the CBD has not been inundated by river flooding since 1956.
Despite that, one homeowner’s annual renewal jumped from just over $700 in 2024 to nearly $9,000 in 2025. After approaching around eight insurers, they could not find a quote below several thousand dollars, according to ABC News.
A local broker confirmed to ABC News the issue was not isolated. “Among the four or five insurers we have that issue home insurance, I would say that the premiums have gotten worse in the last five years,” she said.
A broker obtained a quote of over $15,000 for a Wagga Wagga CBD property using the same online tool – compared to below $5,000 for a property in Shepparton, a town that experienced actual flooding in 2022. The comparison underscores that flood history alone does not determine a property’s insurance premium, with insurers also considering factors including flood modelling, property characteristics, claims experience, and broader insurance costs.
Insurers gave different explanations when approached. NRMA Insurance said its Wagga pricing was updated twice – during and just before the levee’s completion – with local premiums decreasing on average by up to 33%. Allianz said it reviews flood premiums using government maps, external datasets, and flood risk modelling. QBE cited rising weather event severity, elevated global reinsurance costs, and inflation.
Those responses point to the core issue the roundtable is expected to examine: mitigation investment may reduce the flood risk component of a premium, but other cost pressures can push the total figure in the opposite direction.
McCormack described the meeting as a forum for practical outcomes. “This roundtable is an important opportunity to identify the insurance challenges facing members of our community and work towards practical solutions that improve accessibility and affordability for residents across the Riverina,” he said.
McGirr tied the issue to the region’s direct flood experience. “Our community has experienced firsthand the impact of flooding. Continued investment in mitigation infrastructure and effective planning is essential to reducing risk, improving insurance outcomes, and strengthening community confidence,” he said.
Hall restated the ICA’s position on what drives premiums down. “Insurance affordability is one of the most significant pressures facing many communities exposed to flood and other natural hazards, and the best way to put downward pressure on premiums is to reduce the risk communities face. Strong partnerships between insurers, governments, and local communities are essential to addressing the complex factors driving insurance costs and improving long-term resilience across regional Australia,” he said.
Mayor Tout emphasised the role of community experience in shaping solutions. “This is an opportunity to ensure local voices are heard and that the experiences of residents, businesses, and community organisations help inform future solutions to insurance affordability and accessibility challenges,” he said.
Roma, Queensland, provides an example of mitigation translating into lower insurance premiums. After an initial levee was built following the town’s devastating 2012 floods, Suncorp cut property premiums in Roma by an average of 45%. A second stage of flood mitigation works – including a levee extension and diversion drain – was subsequently completed in 2019, bringing the total investment in Roma’s flood protection to $26.5 million.
In March 2026, the federal government and the ICA agreed on the Hazards Insurance Partnership’s (HIP) Guiding Principles for resilience investment. The principles provide a framework for prioritising resilience and mitigation projects that reduce risk and can be recognised by insurers in the peril component of premiums. They do not guarantee a particular premium reduction, with individual insurers retaining responsibility for how mitigation is reflected in pricing.
That distinction matters in Wagga Wagga. The levee appears to have reduced the flood risk component for some properties – NRMA Insurance’s 33% average reduction figure points to that – but total premiums have risen because reinsurance costs, construction inflation, and claims experience across the broader portfolio have pushed other components up.
A similar pattern emerged in south-west Queensland. Following a roundtable in Charleville in September 2025, the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) led a working group that delivered seven updated flood studies to the ICA by March 2026, aiming to ensure current risk data is reflected in pricing. Premiums in some areas continued to double annually despite that investment, according to the QRA.
For brokers with clients in Wagga Wagga and comparable flood-mapped regional areas, the insurer responses point to specific questions worth raising at renewal: whether the flood risk component of a premium has been updated to reflect current mitigation works, which data sources the insurer is using, and whether those sources include the most recent flood studies lodged with the National Flood Information Database.
Clients in levee-protected areas who have seen large premium increases are not necessarily in a market without options – they may be in a market where the pricing data has not caught up with the infrastructure. That is the conversation the Wagga Wagga roundtable is designed to force.
No date for the meeting was included in materials released by McCormack’s office.
