Hobart based insurance broker Greg Lewer said the state’s high rate of accidental house fires and high value insurance claims were not corresponding with insurance premiums.

He was commenting on the latest figures from the Productivity Commission’s report on government fire services, which showed Tasmania had stand-out fire data. 

“Anecdotally, the state’s insurance premiums have always been cheaper than most mainland rates.

“Home policies not only cover fire but also storm, flood, hail, storms etc., and these risks probably contribute more to the premiums of the other states than they do in Tasmania.

“Our northern neighbours seem to have more than their fair share of these other catastrophes than does Tasmania.”

The Insurance Council of Australia’s communications general manager Campbell Fuller said the statistics showed the frequency of Tasmanian claims for fires was higher than other states.

“However, fire is one of the least common occurrences of all insured events in Tasmania.

“Though the rate of fire claims in Tasmania is higher than in other states, it has a negligible impact on household insurance premiums.

“Weather-related claims, for example, are far more frequent. Tasmanian home insurance premiums are relatively low compared with other states and territories.”

Mr Lewer said Tasmania’s larger and more frequent claims could be a combination of lack of fire alarms, response times and the distance from fully operational stations.

“It could also be (our) older houses and more fire sources such as wood heaters, open fire places, electric heaters and chimneys etc.

“Given the time difference in fire response times, the additional destruction may aggravate the size of loss from minor to a whole house conflagration.”