February 16, 2016
Federal Member for Maranoa Bruce Scott has again called for an urgent review of Blackbutt’s postcode, an issue which has been bugging residents – and costing them money – for years.
Mr Scott made an impassioned speech in Parliament last week saying the Blackbutt-Benarkin region was perched on top of the Great Dividing Range however it shared the same 4306 postcode as Ipswich city, 140km away.
“For these two regions to share a postcode is bizarre, to say the least, because the two regions don’t even share a border,” Mr Scott said.
“Due to the fact that Ipswich-Amberley 4306 is metropolitan and the Blackbutt-Benarkin region is rural, the erroneous allocation has resulted in a diverse and significant range of detrimental outcomes for the Blackbutt-Benarkin region.
“Insurance premiums are adversely affected because Blackbutt-Benarkin is lumped in with the woes of metropolitan cities, for instance, in relation to crime.
“Home, contents and motor vehicle insurances are based on postcodes.
“The rural Blackbutt region does not have the perceived threat risk on many levels associated with the Ipswich region.
“However, if you live in Blackbutt’s neighbouring town of Yarraman, the circulation of insurance premiums mean that a Yarraman resident was quoted a premium $600 less than their Blackbutt neighbour.
“This is simply because Yarraman, 14km away from Blackbutt, does not share the 4306 postcode.”
In efforts to obtain a better deal for Blackbutt-Benarkin residents, Mr Scott has made representations to Australia Post, the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Insurance Council of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
“All of whom advised of their powerlessness to influence insurance companies or to effect change,” he said with frustration.
“Take the postcode of 4306: add those numbers up and you get 13 — maybe I am superstitious — but this postcode remains one of the unluckiest Queensland postcodes for 57 separate localities that share 4306.”
- External link: Mr Scott’s speech in full
Related articles:
- MPs Call On Australia Post To Review Postcodes
- Australia Post Refuses To Change Postcode
- MP Presses Minister On Postcode
- MP Targets Blackbutt’s ‘Unlucky’ Postcode
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Mr Scott’s fight for a better postcode system was then used last week to grill Australia Post’s CEO during a Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee hearing:
(See time stamps: 3.27 and 10.30)
Mr Scott blaming a postcode system for predatory insurance hicks is to say it was the horse who broke the wagon’s wheel on South Burnett roads. Today mapping systems such as Google Earth [free] would suggest this anomaly could easily be overcome if the LNP governments lack of enforceable guidelines had not allowed irresponsible predatory pricing practices within the insurance industry to flourish unchecked.