E-Bike Law raises Civil Liberties concerns

QCCL President Michael Cope said today, “QCCL has made a  submission  in relation to the State Government’s proposed E-bike laws. Most aspects of the law are not of concern to us. The issues that are of concern are - parental responsibility and the police power to seize bikes”

As a matter of principle, the criminal law does not usually impose duties on people to take positive action. This is a principle rooted in protecting liberty, It is the State that has a duty to protect the public from harm.

There are practical difficulties in imposing a duty, because if a person has a duty, they must take steps to stop the commission of the crime or report the potential offender to the police. In this case that means parents reporting their kids to the police. A step hardly likely to be conducive to good family relations.

“Children, especially the teenagers that are the Bill’s primary subject, are to the relevant level capable of making their own decisions, and where a parent has not been proven to have incited or condoned a child’s misbehaviour, the child should be held responsible for it alone.”

In practice, parents are not actually capable of controlling the conduct of children on e-bikes beyond providing safe guidelines and modelling responsible behaviour. E-bike misconduct happens outside the home, where it cannot be easily monitored by parents

In fact, making parents liable may ultimately make already bad relationships worse, particularly where the family is from a disadvantaged background and the parents are already by reason of the stress of living having difficulty maintaining healthy relationships. Many parents face serious challenges, e.g. those of being single parents, or a cost-of-living crisis and thus having to work multiple jobs. Punishing those parents will only exacerbate their problems.

“The law permits the police to seize and destroy E bikes. Now ultimately it may be appropriate for the police to have such powers. But in our view the powers in this legislation unjustifiably interfere with basic property rights and the presumption of innocence”.

“QCCL does not support the bike seizure power as it requires property owners to prove they should be allowed to possess their own personal property. Rather, police must be required to prove the property is illegal, and if they cannot, must return (or in the case of property with an unidentifiable owner) attempt to return the property. Requiring owners to prove their property is legal puts an unreasonable burden on people whose rights have already been interfered with” said Mr Cope 

For further information contact Michael Cope President QCCL on 07 3223 5939 during office hours and at all times on 0432 847 154 

14 April 2026