‘Take them away, crush them’: Australia confronts an ebike surge

After the Sydney Harbour Bridge was swarmed by about 40 ebikes and e‑motorcycles, the federal government said the country faced a “real emergency”. The health minister, Mark Butler, called “[illegal ebikes] are a total menace on the road” and warned that “the injuries that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating.” He added: “We’ve got to make sure we stop these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them.” Ebikes have been promoted as a climate‑friendly way to cut congestion, emissions and give young people more exercise, but they have also caused serious harm.

New South Wales recorded 226 ebike‑related injuries in 2024, and in the first seven months of 2025 that had surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths. Preliminary police data show legal ebikes were involved in 239 crashes in Queensland in 2025, four of them fatal.

Australia, Sydney