After construction of the Main City Levee was completed in April 2020, Riverina MP Michael McCormack enthusiastically called for insurance premiums to be lowered "today" at the September opening. Almost 12 months later, the NFID has not been updated, with current mapping being used dated to 2009 and most insurance premiums still costly.

Wagga City Council confirmed that though the city's official flood plan was updated in 2019 to include levee bank data and lower risk levels for some areas, updated mapping was only sent to the Insurance Council for the NFID in September 2020. Due to a technical error the information was rejected by the Insurance Council and had to be resent six months later in March 2021.

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The Insurance Council confirmed the new data is still being assessed by their hydrologists for inclusion in the database and that currently, Wagga's insurance information is based on 2004 mapping in some areas and 2009 mapping in others.

Meanwhile, Gallagher Insurance broker Caleb Richards said flood insurance remains too expensive for residents and businesses, and uptake is unacceptably low.

"For a myriad of reasons, many businesses and residents in Wagga don't have adequate flood cover," Mr Richards said. "Primarily flood has been cost prohibitive or not deemed commercially viable."

Insurers have the freedom to use various resources to determine premiums, not just the NFID. NRMA Insurance confirmed their flood risk levels for some Wagga addresses have been adjusted based on Wagga Council's 2019 flood map to reflect the lower risk and and offer lower costs to those protected by the new levee. Allianz Insurance did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Richards said that overall, however, an update to the NFID would see prices improve for all protected addresses.

"Once the updated mapping is adopted by the Insurance Council, homes and businesses protected by the levee will see premium relief for flood insurance," he said.

"I'm not sure how quickly insurers will adopt the new mapping but we will advocate and negotiate for our clients to receive the premium relief."

The Insurance Council did not confirm exactly when the database would be updated with the new mapping, saying it would be available to insurers "later this year".

Mr Richards said at current levels of coverage, businesses and residents would be devastated in the event of a serious flood.

"Personally I view not having flood [insurance] as a massive issue," he said.

"On top of the damage sustained to a building, contents or stock, it also means a business interruption payment - a cash injection when you can't trade - is not triggered by the insuring clause, and very few businesses anywhere can afford to not trade for 12 months or more while they rebuild."

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