Member for Polwarth, Richard Riordan, called on the Minister for Agriculture, Jaclyn Symes, to work with Australia's importers of four-wheeler motorbikes.

Last week The Standard reported local farmers were buying multiple quad bikes and dealerships were running out of stock with manufacturers set to pull out of the Australian market. As of October next year Honda will stop selling quad bikes in Australia, following in the footsteps of Polaris and Yamaha. The decision comes as new federal government standards will require all quad bikes be fitted with rollover protection from October 2021.

In parliament, Mr Riordan said new regulations would effectively mean four-wheeler motorbikes would be banned on farms in rural and regional Australia. He said south-west dairy farmers would suffer enormously because of the regulation change. "Essentially the four wheel motorbike has become the main equipment of choice in managing people's farms and herds," he said.

"They're used right across rural Australia and rural Victoria in agriculture (and) these bikes are not nearly as dangerous as many other pursuits that occur on farms." He said farmers would incur greater costs and recently built underpasses will be rendered unusable.