Wednesday, 18 June 2025

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:43): When is a motorcycle a car? When the Allan Labor government has worked out it can charge you more to register it. In Victoria, if you think you own a three-wheel motorbike, you do not. It is a car, and as such you will pay $780 to register it. If your motor trike was really a motorbike, the most it would cost you in regional Victoria is $468. But as Minister Horne has responded to my inquiry, even the Department of Transport and Planning acknowledges the inconsistency of having to register a motor trike as a motor vehicle but requiring the rider to hold a motorcycle licence to operate it. Amending the regulations they said would be too costly and complex. What a load of rubbish. Every other state in Australia registers a trike as a motorbike. The department bemoans just how complex it would be to change to five-digit numberplates – please.

Three-wheel motor trikes give a sense of safety and control to many and a genuine sense of independence to the disabled, who have turned to trikes in droves. As one of my constituents quite rightly asked about her three-wheel motorbike, when did Harley-Davidson ever make a car? What car has handlebars and footrests and requires a motorbike licence and helmet to be driven? And where on her bike does she fit the car doors and the seat belt? This is not just an anomaly, it is a bureaucratic idiocy which could be fixed immediately and painlessly. As my constituent also points out, this is plain stupidity and price gouging – her words, not mine, but I am not going to argue.