The Turnbull Governments long overdue response to theNorthern Australia Insurance Premiums Taskforcereport offers little comfort to residents in northern Australia who are paying massive insurance premiums on their homes and businesses heading into the upcoming cyclone season.

The response, dropped out late yesterday, is 18 months overdue and offers no practical solutions to those who are forking out thousands of dollars to cover their properties.

Kelly ODwyer promised that the government wouldprovide a detailed response by 30June2016. (Kelly ODwyer media release 4 March 2016).

The Taskforce report, handed to government two years ago, found that over the past 20 years losses from cyclones in northern Australia totalled $2.4b, or $115 million dollars per year and that future losses could be as much as $285 million dollars per year due to the risk of much larger catastrophes.

We have said before that the Turnbull Government should seriously consider straight forward recommendations such as increasedinvestment forhousehold mitigation strategies, further research into mitigation, education campaigns and the possibility of targeted assistance for low income households to undertake mitigation works.

The response is heavy on bureaucratic rhetoric but light on practical solutions for those living with the threat of natural disaster over summer.

Its just not good enough for Turnbull and his ministers to ignore communities right across northern Australia especially at a challenging time of year.