Insurance.

The concept of insurance originated in China centuries ago. Merchants taking their produce to market faced the prospect of ruin when crossing raging rivers.
Should their boat overturn they would lose everything.

A wise man solved this problem by advising travellers to distribute their goods as cargo in many boats. Some might be lost but the majority would survive - and hence each merchant would only suffer a small loss.

This weeks disaster in Brisbane brings home the wisdom of that theory - except that not all people there will be covered by insurance.

Insuring homes, boats, cars and other valuables is optional and those that do insure are slugged with various taxes - including a hefty levy to finance the fire brigade.

When a disaster strikes - as happened in Brisbane - those uninsured cry poverty and the various charities join the Federal and state governments in donating funds to alleviate stress. The loss is not fully covered, but at least those who can least afford it get relief.

The insurance option is not really fair to those to choose to pay premiums and have security. Those that opt out do not pay their share, and consequently premiums are higher than if all were covered.

According to the forecasters global warming will result in an increase in severe storms - and consequent damage to private property. Perhaps this would be a good time to have a long, hard look at the question of insurance.

Perhaps all real estate needs to be covered by a basic insurance against fire, flood and destruction by severe storm. This cover would need to be an inclusion by each council - with the premium forming part of the rates.

Failure to pay would attract the same recourse as the present system used to recover rate arrears.

The advantage is that there would be basic cover for all property with owners having the option to take out private insurance to cover losses from burglary and similar events.

There would also be the advantage that those renting would be assured that there was money available to restore their dwelling after a storm, rather than rely on the owner to have the finances to carry out repairs.

A universal base cover should even out premiums for those wise enough to have private insurance and allow owners to select top up cover to suit their individual requirements.

If we are to get more severe storms because of climate change we need to review our insurance options to reduce the chance of many being left destitute !