Home Insurance Flood Cover

The rules have been changed for what insurers must provide. Part of the problem in the Queensland floods was different definitions of flood, meaning that many homeowners had their claims refused despite being knee deep in flood water while their next door neighbour with a different insurer was covered.
From now on all home and content insurance will include flood cover using one common sense definition: Flood means the covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the normal confines of: a) any lake, or any river, creek or other natural watercourse, whether or not altered or modified; or b). any reservoir, canal, or dam.
I claimed last year when flood water came down off the street outside due to a blocked storm drain. That would not meet the new definition. Nor would the flood of the basement car park due to an old water main coming unplugged be covered.
Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten says insurance policies will not go up because of this. He must mean that the insurance companies are taking on all this extra risk at their expense as a Christmas present to the people of Australia, which is very sweet of them. Or maybe they think all the new flood claims will cost less than places like mine that are no longer covered.