TOURISM — PUBLIC
LIABILITY INSURANCE
432. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Tourism:
(1) Is the
minister aware that adventure tourism operators offering experienced-based
activities like quad bike tours, fishing, whale watching and abseiling are
being refused public liability insurance, or being hit with massively increased
and unaffordable premiums?
(2) Does the
minister agree that this will significantly impact the tourism sector's
ability to recover from COVID-19, and what is the minister doing to support the
sector to address this issue?
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for his question. Yes, I am aware of those matters. With
respect to motorcycle adventure tourism, I can tell the member good news, and
we have passed this on, by the way, to the sector: motorcycle adventure tour
operators can seek insurance through Motorcycling WA. That is a great
organisation. It is not focused on adventure tourism but focused on
motorcycling activities in the recreational sector. It has its own insurance
capacity, and it offered this. When we made some comments in the media with
regard to this matter, it contacted my office and we passed that advice to the
adventure tourism operators who contacted us.
With respect to other adventure
tourism operators, this is a serious issue. Insurance is being impacted right
around the globe by the reluctance of underwriters, primarily Lloyds and
institutions of that calibre or scale, to
extend insurance in a whole range of areas in the manner they have in the past.
That has created issues right down to the adventure tourism sector here.
I initially asked the Small Business Commissioner to investigate and provide
advice to me as to what might be done, and within government now we are just
working on whether or not there is a mechanism for us to assist.