A senior member of Queensland's parliamentary e-mobility inquiry has raised concerns that proposed regulations risk treating law-abiding pedal-assisted e-bikes as equivalent to unregistered electric motorbikes, despite finding no evidence that compliant bicycles present a safety problem.
The deputy chair of the State Development, Infrastructure and Works Committee told the Sydney Morning Herald that lumping pedal-assist e-bikes and high-powered electric motorbikes into the same regulatory category represents a conceptual error that could undermine sensible policy. The inquiry, established in mid-2025 and drawing more than 1200 submissions, is widely expected to recommend minimum age limits and potential licensing requirements for e-bike riders.
This concern points to a deeper tension in how Queensland approaches e-mobility regulation. Legal e-bikes in Queensland must have electric motors capable of generating no more than 200 watts with pedal-assist only, or 250 watts with automatic cutoff at 25 km/h, with pedals required to keep the motor operating. These specifications align with European safety standards and are designed to integrate electric bicycles into existing cycling infrastructure without creating hazards for pedestrians or other road users.
Yet the data driving the inquiry points to genuine harm. Queensland Health reported more than 6,300 e-mobility related emergency department presentations in the year to March 2025, with over 200 cases involving major trauma and more than 60 requiring intensive care. In 2024 alone, 12 people died in e-mobility device incidents in Queensland, including several children. The challenge is that these figures likely lump together incidents involving compliant bikes, non-compliant high-powered devices, and e-scooters, making it difficult to isolate which category poses what level of risk.
At the centre of the discussion is a proposal, backed by some inquiry committee members and health stakeholders, to ban e-bikes and e-scooters for riders under 16 and require riders over 16 to hold at least a learner driver's licence. These suggestions reflect increasing public pressure following high-profile incidents and rising safety data. Industry advocates question whether driver licensing makes sense for pedal-assisted bicycles, which operate under completely different dynamics from motor vehicles.
The real problem, according to bicycle advocacy groups, lies not with compliant pedal-assist bikes but with the import and use of illegal devices. For organisations like Bicycle Queensland, the inquiry has highlighted deeper systemic issues around regulation, import standards, and enforcement. The director of advocacy from Bicycle Queensland argued that linking e-bike usage to driver licences misses the point of the debate: ensuring bikes are legal and safe from the outset.
A 2017 decision removed e-bikes from federal vehicle standards, eliminating the requirement for importers to provide evidence that bikes meet safety standards, opening the door for a flood of high-powered, non-standards approved e-bikes to be imported into Australia. This regulatory gap explains why unregistered electric motorbikes increasingly appear on Queensland streets, while compliant 250-watt pedal-assist bikes remain unproblematic in terms of documented safety incidents.
Queensland faces a genuine challenge: protecting riders and pedestrians from the very real risks posed by illegal high-powered devices while maintaining access to an environmentally sustainable form of transport that poses minimal documented risk when used lawfully. The inquiry's recommendations will be closely watched to see whether the final regulations distinguish between these categories or impose uniform restrictions that may prove both economically inefficient and ineffective at addressing the actual problem.