Senator MILNE (5:58 PM) —I move:

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

(i)   while Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory all insure public assets with a comprehensive disaster cover obtained on the international re-insurance market, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania do not,

(ii)   the recent comments by the Prime Minister (Ms Gillard) that Queensland’s lack of insurance cover for its public assets was a ‘matter for Queensland’, are obviously incorrect, given that the flood levy will be borne by the majority of taxpayers, and

(iii)   the extent to which the Commonwealth reimburses the states and territories for expenditure related to natural disaster relief and recovery, as set out by the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, does not take into consideration whether a state or territory has taken out insurance cover; and

(b)   calls on the Government to:

(i)   reveal the Commonwealth Government’s insurance arrangements for its infrastructure,

(ii)   transparently estimate what the cost to the Commonwealth Government would have been had the Queensland Government purchased reinsurance to cover the cost of damage to public infrastructure caused by recent natural disasters,

(iii)   table all communication between the Commonwealth and the Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmanian Governments relating to their lack of natural disaster reinsurance for public infrastructure, since the 2007 election, and

(iv)   consider how future Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements can take into consideration the extent to which the state and territory governments are insured against damage to public infrastructure caused by natural disasters.