Sandy welcomes the announcement made 1 May 2025 of a Parliamentary Inquiry following our advocacy and her call for action last Parliament sitting to see an end to reckless electric bike, motorbike and scooter usage. The inquiry is being undertaken by State Development, Infrastructure and Works Committee, with a commitment to consider all research and opinions to curb the issues being faced. However concerningly, efforts and an amendment to have the inquiry completed by August this year failed, with a reporting date of 30 March 2026 instead tabled.

Following Sandy’s adjournment speech in Parliament on 1 April, as mentioned in our April 2025 Noosa 360 update, she provided recommendations from our first responders, local community groups and residents on what urgent reforms are needed to increase community safety to the Minister for Transport and Main Roads (TMR), Minister for Education and the Minister for Police. Further information on this including an update on curbing incidents occurring in Noosa National Park, please visit www.sandybolton.com/electric-bikes-and-scooters-update-april-2025.

With the inquiry some nine months away, Sandy will continue to seek in the meantime increased policing including at our schools, as well support for a pilot of e-tags for identification and ‘licensing’.

With the federal election recently undertaken, residents are also encouraged to raise the need for tighter import controls with their Commonwealth Parliament representatives. Electric bikes, scooters and motorbikes that do not comply with Australian Design Rules are being imported from overseas and purchased online, which is only exasperating the issue.

We thank the Minister for TMR for listening and look forward to securing support in the next two months for the pilot, and the outcomes of the inquiry.

Our office will continue to keep the community informed as more progress is made, including when submissions are open to the inquiry and when responses are received to recommendations provided to the ministers.

Age limits

With residents raising questions regarding what age limits are in place for these devices, we have compiled the following:

  • Electric scooters (Personal Mobility Devices – PMDs) – riders must be 16+ years old if unsupervised or 12+ years old if supervised by an adult.
  • Compliant electric bikes – there is no age limit.
  • Non- compliant electric bikes or illegal electric motorbikes – no one of any age should be riding an illegal device on public roads and paths.

Sandy will continue her efforts including to see consistent age limits applied between electric scooters and compliant electric bikes.

Further information

For our previous Noosa 360 updates on electric bikes and scooters, please visit www.sandybolton.com/?s=Electric+Bikes.

Sandy asks all in our community to assist our police by reporting offenders to Policelink on 131 444 or by lodging an online report at www.police.qld.gov.au/policelink-reporting. For anyone who has CCTV cameras, you can register with the Community Camera Alliance at www.police.qld.gov.au/safety-and-preventing-crime/community-camera-alliance.