So, where did this law come from?

A little history is instructive.

(1) EPA

It is possible that the EPA have been misled by certain parties within the RTA as to the correct status of a little known Safety Check Rule introduced in March 1993 and suspended in December 1993. It is possible that EPA have made an assumption that this Rule has been continuously applied to all motorcycles in the history of NSW.

If we inspect the Regulatory Impact Statement issued by the EPA prior to introduction of this Regulation, we find a clear attitude of going after the motorcycle owner for excessive noise. This document contains hints and allegations about the behaviour of motorcyclists.

No data on the actual size of the motorcycle noise problem it attempts to address is presented, except for dirt bikes, where the problem appears very small indeed, although some specific areas may have problems. The relevant Regulatory Impact Statement contains selective quoting of out of context data and anecdotes represented as facts. This leads to some surprising conclusions through questionable reasoning. We find the sections of this document that discuss motorcycles to be misleading at best.

(2) RTA

In March 1993, the RTA introduced a new system for annual inspection of vehicles for registration. This reduced the annual inspection to a set of Rules that an authorized Examiner must follow.

One Rule was proposed for motorcycles, to include a label on an aftermarket exhaust to ensure in-service compliance with noise Regulations.

This had never been required in the past.

This label requirement was embodied in Safety Check Rule 147.03(c), demanding the same detail as is included in the current EPA Regulation Clause 19. This Rule was an instruction to the Examiner to refuse a motorcycle for registration if it did not have a label on its exhaust carrying all the required information.

Nine months later, in December 1993, the RTA issued Safety Check Bulletin No. 100 to their AIS Examiners, instructing them to suspend Rule 147.03(c) and that an update would arrive later. This Bulletin included addresses of local and interstate aftermarket exhaust makers with instructions to return the exhaust for labeling but did not address imported aftermarket exhaust systems at all.

Rule 147.03(c) lasted 9 months, from when it first appeared, until its suspension.

Clearly, this Rule was retrospective when it was introduced, as no such requirement had existed prior to this time and the Rule was to be applied to all motorcycles regardless of build date, seeking an annual registration inspection.

Suspending the Rule was the only reasonable course of action. It was retrospective when first introduced and there was no system whereby riders could seek compliance with the Rule, without disassembling their motorcycle and freighting the exhausts to the manufacturer for labels - no matter where the manufacturer happened to be!

Updates to Safety Check Rules are now current at Issue #5 of June 1997 (the latest) these do not include any instructions on re-instating of Rule 147.03(c).

In April 1998, the RTA issued a Vehicle Standards Information booklet, entitled Guidelines for Modifications to Motorcycles. This booklet includes Section 3. Noise Nuisance in which it discusses sound output level in a general sense and provides detail of the ADR 39/00 label.

In bold text it carries the statement that any replacement part of the exhaust system must show the trademark or the name of the original manufacturers of the system.

No mention is made of any label that must be fitted to an aftermarket exhaust in order to comply with Safety Check Rule 147.03(c).

This Information booklet appeared after the latest update to the Safety Check Rules. So no registration inspection would look for a label, just a trademark or manufacturer's name.

This information has led to the community expectation that an aftermarket exhaust may be fitted to a motorcycle as long as it is not "upon inspection is considered to be excessively noisy" (Rule 351 of Rules for Authorised Inspection Stations)

These expectations continue today. No information contrary to this has been provided to owners or riders in NSW until they arrive at a Random Breath Test station set up by the Police for the purpose of collecting motorcycles for the EPA inspectors.

EPA misled or just bad homework?

It seems that some sections of the RTA head office believe that Safety Check Rule 147.03(c) has been continuously applied since March 1993 and that this means all motorcycles have a little label on their aftermarket exhaust.

However, as discussed above, this is not current practice and has not been for 10 years.

Possibilities?

Several possiblities exist as to what the Environmental Protection Authority thought when it introduced Clause 19 of the Protection of the Environment Act on 1 July 2000.

(1) It is possible it was willing to accept the bald assertion from the RTA without question, assuming it was authoritative.

(2) It is possible it knew of the practice in the field, but in keeping with the world view of motorcyclists expressed in the Regulatory Impact Statement, decided to ignore this and was quite willing to accept a mistake from the RTA in order to fulfill a desire to get motorcycle riders.

(3) It is possible that the community consultation meeting with the Motorcycle Council prior to introduction of the new Regulations was a statutory requirement, but the ideas expressed by riders did not fit the world view of EPA opinion and the rider representations were simply ignored

(4) It is possible that this is simply a classic example of a whole of government stuff-up - RTA and EPA and Police.

Whatever the answer, poor communication and a lack of understanding has resulted in a serious imposition upon riders. The effect upon the motorcycle community is expensive and inconvenient. Tens of thousands of riders are affected by this.

It needs to be fixed. This is bad legislation, badly enforced