Barnaby Joyce's link to e-bikes everywhere

When you see those swarms of illegal electric bikes popping wheelies down freeways, through the CBD, you probably don't think of former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce. But the connection is there – and it's as strange and mysterious as it seems. Bike rideouts have been taking over city streets as part of the Bike Life movement but bad behaviour on some of the rides have been criticised. Just last week, a group of women on a historical walking tour were harassed by a group of teenagers riding e-bikes in Wollongong. Earlier this year, police earlier condemned an e-bike meet-up where a group performed wheelies while on a joy ride over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, something that's also been seen in social media videos of Melbourne roads. So how did e-bikes become so prevalent on our roads? What have the consequences been? And what do politicians have to do with it? "We have seen an explosion of high-powered, high-speed products that are legal to sell, but are not legal to use," said Peter Bourke, the CEO of Bicycle Industries Australia. "They are unroadworthy motorbikes. And we've seen, unfortunately, a spike in injuries and spike in deaths because of these products." Since 2020, there has been a rise of over 400 per cent in people arriving in Victorian emergency departments with e-bike related injuries. There was a similar rise reported by Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital between 2023 and 2025. A 2025 study of more than 700 young riders aged 10–25 found e-bike riders were twice as likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries as those on regular bicycles. "The rules are really still trying to catch up," said Simon Judkins, an emergency physician and the Victorian AMA President. "In the meantime, we're seeing more and more people having pretty tragic injuries," Dr Judkins said. On the face of it, the injury figures make sense. The numbers are difficult to analyse, however. Sales of e-bikes have also been on a sharp rise — up from around 9,000 a year in 2017, to around 200,000 in 2022. The industry expects around 300,000 sales this year. But Mr Bourke of Bicycle Industries Australia said the removal of import regulations meant the numbers didn't really tell the full story. "One of the challenges is that the hospital data doesn't identify — was the bike safe? Was the bike compliant? Or was it really an non-compliant motorbike?" Mr Bourke said it was the kind of data that only emerges when there was a fatality. "In nearly every one of those incidents the bike was able to go 50, 60, even 100 kilometres an hour," he said. In April this year, a 15-year-old Victorian boy was killed when he was thrown from the pillion seat of an electric motorbike after it collided with two cars. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and the bike was unregistered. The 17-year-old rider survived. Last year, the death of a 41-year-old Melbourne e-bike rider after colliding with another e-bike prompted a coroner to recommend all e-bikes be registered in Victoria. It was rejected as being too costly, too difficult to enforce, and could be a disincentive to riding. When Barnaby Joyce was deputy prime minister and transport minister in 2021, his assistant minister Kevin Hogan made a quiet, but hugely significant change to the Road Vehicle Standards Act. His decision to remove the requirement to meet European standards on e-bikes led to a five-year free-for-all to import all the high-powered, unregulated, and now illegal bikes you see on the roads. The ABC has had no answer from either Mr Joyce or Mr Hogan, despite numerous approaches. And no-one who was consulted about the change at the time seems to have a clue why, either. The changes to road vehicle standards were considered so inconsequential in 2021, it was never mentioned in parliament. Instead, the government published an explanatory memorandum – describing it as being of a "relatively minor nature", and that would have "minimal regulatory impact". Under the heading "consultation", the memo said the idea had been put to the Strategic Vehicle Safety and Environment Group — a panel of road transport industry groups, along with state and territory government representatives. But it appears to have neglected to ask anyone with any actual connection to cycling manufacturers or retailers. In fact, Bicycle Industries Australia didn't find out about it until four months after it had happened. Instead, the memo mentions groups like the Australian Trucking Association, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, and the Australian Automobile Association. It also mentions the National Transport Commission, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Chamber of Automotive Industries "made no written submissions on the matter, nor does the CEO have a recollection of dealing with the issue," it told the ABC. A spokesman for the Australian Trucking Association said: "Our representative would have reviewed the draft, and decided that other members of the group would have been better placed to provide feedback." The Motor Trades Association of Australia regarded e-bikes as being outside its core focus. "They were treated as bicycles and regulated as such, which explains why no concern was flagged during the consultation process." But MTAA Interim Executive Director Peter Jones told the ABC the rapid growth of online imports of e-bikes has created challenges regulators never anticipated. "Reputable Australian dealers are complying with regulations, while offshore suppliers are often operating outside those guidelines," he said. "Without stronger national coordination around compliance and enforcement, safety risks will continue to increase, while legitimate operators work with a significant commercial disadvantage." Other organisations, including the Australian Automobile Association, did not respond to inquiries from the ABC. Without Mr Joyce or Mr Hogan willing to shed any light, Mr Bourke can only speculate. "We believe what led to the changes in 2021 was a desire to reduce red tape, open up the market and make it easier to import products," he said. "But we've never been able to find that answer. We wrote to the minister several times. "The department has simply said – 'You were not part of the conversation'." The free-for-all is now partially over, after the Albanese government reintroduced the import standard at the end of 2025. But Mr Bourke said that did not close the door completely — because the process of getting an application to bring in an e-bike, by demonstrating it meets the safety requirements, is voluntary. "We know that companies are still bringing products into the country that do not meet that standard," he said.