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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-12 Daily Xml
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INSURANCE AGGREGATORS

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about insurance aggregators.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: There are a number of insurance aggregators available to prepare quotes for annual policies, with one well-known one being iSelect for health insurance and another being RateCity, which I understand is operated by ninemsn and Cannex.

We have had some complaints to our office, and we did our own testing very recently by creating a couple of hypothetical customers. One was a 65 year old female living at Glenunga seeking comprehensive insurance for a 2007 Holden wagon. RateCity priced SGIC at $569.29 per annum. However, when clicking through to the SGIC site, the quote came in at $347.84, which is $221.45, or nearly 40 per cent, less.

Another quote was sought for a 25 year old male at Newton. RateCity priced a quote from Budget Direct at $509.03, whereas the direct quote from Budget Direct came in at $700, which is $191, or nearly 40 per cent, more. I am advised that the methodology used by aggregators to create their pricing is through a once per month survey using a fairly small sample size. My question to the minister is: has the office of consumer affairs issued any notifications to consumers in relation to the inaccuracy of these websites and, if not, why not?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for her important question. To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware that I have received any complaints in my office about these matters. Officers may have dealt with them and may have been dealing with the agency directly. That could have happened but, to the best of my knowledge, I am not aware of any complaints recently.

I am happy to look at the information that the honourable member has presented here today and have that investigated. The honourable member knows that our agency and officers are very responsive and responsible and, if she or any of her constituents have any concerns, all they need do is contact our office and we always respond in a very timely and responsible way. She has chosen not to do that today so I am not aware of the particular examples that she has given. As I said, I am happy to take that on notice, have it investigated and bring back a response.

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