Quad-bike safety delay: Sukkar sidetracks October deadline on fitting ATV roll bars

A loophole will allow ATVs to be sold without roll bars beyond the Federal Government’s October deadline for more stringent safety measures.

Quad bikes will continue to be sold without roll bars, despite regulations setting a deadline of October 10 on them being fitted to all new ATVs. Picture: Andy Rogers

Motorcycle and farm machinery dealers will be able to sell quad bikes without roll bars well beyond this year’s legislated October 10 deadline.

On June 23 Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar quietly signed off on amendments to his original 2019 Consumer Goods (Quad Bikes) Safety Standard, allowing dealers to sell quad bike without operator protection devices (roll bars), beyond October 10, as long as the bikes were ordered before July 1 this year.

The move was an attempt by Mr Sukkar to help dealers overcome Covid-driven supply chain disruptions, given orders made prior to July 1 may not arrive until well after the October 10 deadline.

But the wording of the Assistant Treasurer’s second amendment has caused confusion, stating pre-July 1 orders cannot be “subject to a condition that the general use quad bike be supplied to the dealer after 31 December 2021”.

Legal advice obtained by The Weekly Times found the amendment meant dealers could keep on taking delivery and sell quad bikes without OPDs at any time in the future, as long as they did not stipulate “a condition” in the pre-July order that they be supplied after December 31.

Mr Sukkar’s office confirmed pre-July ordered quad bikes could be sold without OPDs beyond the October 10 deadline, but failed to shed any light on how long the practice could continue.

The amendments clear the way for opponents of OPDs, such as Honda and Yamaha, to continue to sell large back orders of their quad bikes without the devices well into the new year.

Both companies led an almost decade-long campaign against OPDs, claiming they could cause as many injuries as they prevented and they would rather withdraw from the market than fit them.

Queensland Quadbar OPD manufacturer David Robertson said the amendment would “make a mess of the market”, with dealers having to sell some bikes with OPDs and others not.

“They (dealers) could have ordered 10,000 of them (before July) and go on selling them without OPDs until 2050,” Mr Robertson said.

“All the people who have complied with the regulations (to fit OPDs by October 10) will now be competing with a whole group of them who are not.”

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said any delay in making quad bikes safer was disappointing.

“Already this year, three people have lost their lives in quad bike rollover accidents,” Mr Mahar said.

Yamaha and Suzuki spokesmen said they had heard little on the issue.