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Lawyers point to hypocrisy in insurer calls for Queensland CTP reform
27th Nov 2018
The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) has strongly criticised calls from RACQ and Suncorp for changes to Queensland’s Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance scheme that would see less benefits for injured motorists.
ALA Director, Rod Hodgson, said the insurer’s proposal for a change is driven by a desire for greater profits and fails to recognise that Queensland’s CTP scheme is the best run and best structured CTP scheme in Australia.
“From time to time we see insurers running the argument that the sky will fall in and there is a crisis in the Queensland CTP scheme - the problems for the insurers is that is simply not true,” he said.
“Far from there being upward pressure on CTP premiums as RACQ and Suncorp claim, Queenslanders have a CTP scheme which is inexpensive, well-run and financially stable.”
Mr Hodgson said that it’s concerning that the two big insurers point to New South Wales as the model upon which Queensland should base itself.
“In stark contrast to Queensland, the NSW scheme, which commenced in December 2017, has been exposed for delivering miserly benefits, including reducing the scope of payouts to the most seriously injured, cutting claimants off from benefits before they are fully recovered, and allowing insurers to adjudicate their own disputes.”
Mr Hodgson also singled out RACQ for their rank hypocrisy.
“This is an organisation that promotes itself as an advocacy group for motorists, some of whom will have the misfortune to be injured on the road,” Mr Hodgson said.
“RACQ is a big insurer and its call for a defined benefits scheme is in truth a call for a smashing of rights and benefits for those people who have had the misfortune to be injured, often through no fault of their own.
“That detriment to RACQ members reflects perfectly how the RACQ tail wags the advocacy dog,” he said.
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