Mr. Jackie McMahon:

The Senator is touching on many of the fundamental issues. As a company that is insuring businesses in the community, FBD certainly wants to be there for those businesses. They are important to us and to our own business. We want to right that premium. We need to right that business at a profit and we need to be profitable. While there are many different adjuncts to what is quite a complex issue, it all boils down to the fact too many people are making claims. I put claims into two brackets with fraud at one side. There are people who have genuinely suffered loss and that is what we are in the business for, it is why customers pay the premium, we are there for them and that is what our business is about. We have a long tradition of being there for our customers.

There is another group of claimants who have suffered very little, if any, loss or injury as a reasonable person would understand those terms. The problem is that group, which is quite significant, can easily make a claim and receive very high compensation payouts at no risk to them while, at the same time, generating significant fees and incomes for the people bringing those claims on their behalf.