There were 13.5 million motor vehicles, including motorcycles, registered in Australia at 31 March 2004.

Type of vehicle (1999-2004), Australia (Source: ABS)

Year	1999	2004	change
	No.	No.	%
Passenger vehicles	9,686,223	10,629,401	9.7
Light commercial vehicles	1,721,200	1,952,486	13.4
Rigid trucks	346,823	357,617	3.1
Articulated trucks	63,295	66,300	4.7
Non-freight carrying trucks(a)	51,319	59,644	16.2
Buses	65,891	71,314	8.2
Motorcycles	333,782	396,309	18.7
Total motor vehicles	12,268,533	13,533,071	10.3

(a) Campervans are included with non-freight carrying trucks.

Motorcycle licenses and registrations (Source: Local authority)

State	Motorcycle Licences	Registered Motorcycles	data year
Victoria	280,000	105,000	2004
NSW	400,370	106,283	2004
Queensland	521,573	101,088	2004
ACT	27,681	7,511	2004
Tasmania	?	?	200?
South Australia	159,073	30,500	2004
Northern Territory	a few	several	200?
Western Australia	lots	47,372	2003
Totals	?	?

What is interesting, is that motorcycles, as a means of transport or as a choice of recreation represent a population involvement with numbers in the same rough proportions to those involved with boats.

e.g. NSW has around 447,000 boat drivers licenses, Queensland has around 521,525 boat licenses issued and South Australia shows a similar proportion with around 230,000 boat licenses issued. So how are boats managed by government?

Transport is broken into administrative areas as a convenience to government, hence we have Aviation, Marine, Road and Rail as the normal divisions. Small boats are not forgotten in the management of ports, docks, lighthouses and international shipping.

In fact, small boats are recognised as valid water users and receive a lot of attention in terms of maintaining safety. All types of craft are accommodated.

The administrative model for boating offers much to consider as a way of managing motorcycles in Australia.

e.g. see the NSW Waterways Annual Report (see "Overview" - "Your fees at work")

It provides a distinct improvement on the general invisibility of motorcycles to public policy.

There is no separate classification in Australia af motorcycles as a distinct road user class. Hence motorcycles are overshadowed by the greater number of cars and forgotten in policy decisions. Safety expenditure, tolls and parking are all symptoms of a single root cause of invisibility to public policy.

A motorcycle owner in Australia suffers lack of parking - due to a failure to include motorcycles in transport plans for urban precincts.

The new move to private enterprise toll roads is a glaring example of the failure to include motorcycles as a separate road user class and invisiblity in planning. This has led to inappropriate technology being forced upon riders as a sop to actual exclusion ("if you can't use an E-tag, you have the choice to not use the road"). E-tag technology in Australia fails to provide for motorcycles, forcing unsafe practices by riders attempting to use them.

Whilst administrative practice in most States makes an effort to deal with motorcycles, when private enterprise contracts arise, the lack of classification is embedded in contracts.

The lack of a separate road user classification resulted in motorcycles losing their historical lower rate for tolls (25% of car rate) and are now being charged the same as a car . This happened when the Sydney Harbour Tunnel opened in August 1992.. This first private toll road contract has been used as a model for subsequent toll roads around Australia, resulting in disenfranchisement for motorcycle owners.

Australia's road safety record for cars is around sixth best in the world rankings for OECD counties.

Australia's motorcycle safety record is around sixth worst of rankings of OECD countries and reflects the lack of long term expenditure on motorcycle safety programs and continuance of road maintenance practices that are unsafe for motorcycles - simply because of failure in public policy to include motorcycles in transport planning.

This is not just a Federal government responsibility. AUSTROADS members are all equally responsible.

Relative performance figures from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) See ATSB Monographs 2, 4, & 6

The present administrative model is not working for motorcycles.