No, Australia isn’t changing P-plate laws — Here’s how people were fooled by fake news

You might’ve seen viral TikToks and headlines claiming Australia’s P-plate laws are about to get stricter in August. But after five minutes of fact-checking? It’s clear: it’s all nonsense.

Archie Milligan
May 13, 2025

🧠 What’s being claimed?

According to the fake stories:

Red P-platers would need to stay on their Ps for 18 months.
There’d be zero tolerance on device use.
Fines would double.
Drivers aged 16–21 would only be allowed one passenger.

Except… none of that is true.

👀 Where did this start?

Like most online myths, it’s hard to pinpoint the origin. But one viral TikTok from a creator known as PerformanceNic racked up thousands of comments, confidently making false claims.

The problem? It’s not backed by any real source.

🏛️ Why it’s wrong

State governments control driving laws — not the federal government.
The South Australian government confirmed: no changes are planned.

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💻 The websites pushing it are… questionable

The false claims are circulating on a web of dodgy sites:

An Indian “global news” site War-Stop.
An Indian railway warehouse workers union site BRMGSU.
A pan-African “news” site IPI Africa. - which now appears to direct to another fake site “prabhhonda.”

These are likely AI-generated spam sites, designed to game Google’s algorithm and earn ad revenue.

🔍 People have been fooled

Another TikTok creator, angieiscool333, repeated the false claims to her 11,000 followers. Later, she removed the video after confirming she had read the information on one of these spam websites.
A petition against the fake rules was launched by someone linked to a tiny political party (IEG Party).

📞 We called them

We reached out to the IEG Party and eventually spoke to party leader Brandon Jenner. He admitted they were misled. In trying to jump on the trend, they got burned. He said they would send an email out to all the people who signed the petition letting them know the information was false.

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📉 PerformanceNic doubles down

After Drive.com.au debunked the story, PerformanceNic posted a follow-up claiming he’d fooled people.

But he:

Didn’t take down the original video
Didn’t admit he was wrong
And continues to mislead his audience of young drivers by keeping the original video up on multiple platforms.

🤦 Why it matters

In the second video Nic said:

🗣️“I’m an up-and-coming automotive influencer so I want to be honest with you guys.”

Keeping these videos live means they continue to rack up numbers, likes, and followers. While that’s a tough pill for any influencer to swallow, not doing so means these sorts of fake stories continue to go viral.

📢 The bottom line

There are no new P-plate laws coming in August.

If you want to check for real updates, visit your state’s transport department website, not AI-powered click farms. And of course you follow us @thenationalaccount.

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