The first pass of the National Climate Risk Assessment describes a challenging future in terms of buildings, infrastructure, livelihoods and ecosystems. What does it all mean for insurance?

Peter Lake, a retired financial adviser and grazier in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, recently sold the brokerage he part-owned. That business offered financial advice, insurance broking and more.

For decades, he had been a supporter and active proponent of insurance. But in recent years, Lake has made the decision to leave much of his farm uninsured. Insurance simply no longer made financial sense.

“We live on flood plains on the Coldstream River,” he says. “We’ve had lots of minor floods and we’ve had major floods in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2021 and then in February 2022.

“We are prepared for floods and we have systems in place. We typically have 15 of 130 acres of high ground flood-free during a big flood, including our infrastructure, our house, yards, sheds, etc. We move the cattle to the high country when we know the floods are coming. Then, as the flood recedes, we let them out again.”

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