Queensland’s Labor opposition has called for Crime and Corruption Commission to investigate alleged fraud over an e-mobility rebate scheme it introduced while in government.
Just before the 2024 Queensland state election, the Miles government announced a $500 rebate for e-bikes, and $200 for e-scooters, to encourage active transport.
To be eligible for the rebates, newly purchased e-scooters were required to have speed-limiting capabilities that kept their maximum speeds to 25km/h. Newly purchased power-assisted e-bikes were limited to a maximum 200-watt output, electric power-assisted cycles, which require the rider to pedal to access power, had a maximum output of 250 watts.
The $2 million scheme opened on September 23, a week before the government entered caretaker period, and closed on October 25, the day before the 2024 state election.
On Sunday, Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg revealed about 20 per cent of the rebates were spent on devices considered illegal.
Of the 3265 e-bikes subsidised through the scheme, he said, 693 were illegal, and of 1508 subsidised e-scooters, 141 were illegal devices.
Shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman said Labor had “very strict guidelines in place” and any approval of taxpayers’ money to purchase illegal devices was the result of departmental failure.
“Under those guidelines, these bikes should never have been approved and there are serious questions about why the Department of Transport and QRIDA [the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority] allowed these funds to be given for these illegal bikes,” she said.
“Rather than simply try and play politics with this issue and drop a story to the paper, I believe the minister for transport today must do three things: He must immediately fine those individuals who use government funds to buy illegal bikes – he knows who they are – he should immediately fine them and seize those illegal bikes.
“Secondly, there are serious questions to be asked by the Department of Transport and QRIDA about how this was allowed to happen.
“Let’s be honest. This is fraud. Let’s call it for what it is. It’s fraud, so the minister must refer this matter immediately to ethical standards and/or the CCC.
“And thirdly, the minister must finally, because everyone has been asking the government to act, put in place interim and safety measures to crack down on these illegal bikes.”
Mickelberg said blaming the public service did not wash, as the buck ultimately stopped with then-transport minister Bart Mellish.
“It’s easy to pass the buck to public servants, but ultimately, it’s the government that is responsible here,” he said.
“It’s my view that Labor rolled this out in a haphazard way for the purpose of winning votes, rather than ensuring that they did the work in a calm and methodical way.
“If this was the priority of the government, to target support to the rollout of e-mobility devices, at least ensure that it goes to those devices, under their own rules, that are legal. I think that’s the minimum.”
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