Reference
Demerit point limits for learners and P platers
A learner licence has far less room than most people assume, and the number is different in every jurisdiction. Three agency pages could be read on the check date, so three jurisdictions are set out in full and five carry a link instead of a guess.
- New South Wales learner and P1
- 4 pointsThen the licence is suspended, or a renewal refused, for 3 months
- Queensland class C learner
- 4 or moreIn a continuous 1 year period, and there is no good driving behaviour option on a learner licence
- Western Australia, first P plate year
- 4 or moreRising to 8 or more in the second provisional year
How much room each licence stage actually has
Every bar is a threshold read off an agency page. There is no bar for the five jurisdictions whose pages could not be read, and there is no row for them either, because a threshold guessed at is the one thing on this page that could get somebody suspended.
Demerit point threshold by licence stage, in the three jurisdictions that were read
A learner and an open licence holder are not playing the same game. The shortest bars here are the licence stages a reader of this site is most likely to hold.
- NSW: Learner licence4 pointsCounted over: not stated on the page checked. The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months.
- NSW: Provisional P14 pointsCounted over: not stated on the page checked. The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months.
- NSW: Provisional P27 pointsCounted over: not stated on the page checked. The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months.
- QLD: Class C learner licence4 or more pointsCounted over: a continuous 1 year period. The licence is suspended for 3 months. There is no good driving behaviour option on a class C learner licence.
- QLD: P1, P2, provisional or probationary4 or more pointsCounted over: a continuous 1 year period. A notice is issued and the holder chooses between a 3 month suspension and a 1 year good driving behaviour period. Picking the good behaviour period and then collecting 2 or more points during it means a 6 month suspension. Making no choice by the date on the notice means the 3 month suspension starts automatically.
- QLD: Open licence12 or more pointsCounted over: a 3 year period. 12 to 15 points is a 3 month suspension, 16 to 19 points is 4 months, and 20 or more points is 5 months. A 1 year good driving behaviour period can be chosen instead.
- WA: First year of a provisional licence4 or more pointsCounted over: a 3 year period. The permit or licence may be suspended or the holder disqualified.
- WA: Second year of a provisional licence8 or more pointsCounted over: a 3 year period. The licence may be suspended or the holder disqualified.
- WA: All other drivers12 pointsCounted over: a 3 year period. An Excessive Demerit Points Notice is issued. Electing a good behaviour period and then breaching it doubles the disqualification, so 3 months becomes 6.
Bars run from zero to 12 demerit points. 9 of 9 rows have a figure.
The bar length uses the leading number in the agency's own wording, so a threshold published as four or more points draws a bar of four and still reads as the agency writes it. Amber bars mark the stages with four points or fewer, which is roughly one mid range speeding offence.
Each row carries its agency page in the jurisdiction block below, and all of them are listed on the source register. Read on 28 August 2026.
Which jurisdictions have thresholds on this page
An empty cell is not an oversight. It is the state of the evidence, and the agency link is in the block below.
- NSWNew South Wales3 licence stages, read off the agency page.
- QLDQueensland3 licence stages, read off the agency page.
- WAWestern Australia3 licence stages, read off the agency page.
- VICVictoriaAgency page could not be read on the check date, so no threshold is shown.
- SASouth AustraliaAgency page could not be read on the check date, so no threshold is shown.
- TASTasmaniaAgency page could not be read on the check date, so no threshold is shown.
- NTNorthern TerritoryAgency page could not be read on the check date, so no threshold is shown.
- ACTAustralian Capital TerritoryAgency page could not be read on the check date, so no threshold is shown.
3 of 8 jurisdictions have something here. The rest are marked empty rather than filled in from a source that has not been read.
This is a reference to what three transport agencies published on the date shown, not legal advice. Thresholds change, and anything with a suspension attached to it should be checked against the agency before it is relied on. Anything already in dispute is a matter for a lawyer rather than a study site.
New South Wales: the thresholds
Set by NSW Government. Read off the agency page on 28 August 2026.
| Licence | Limit | Counted over | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learner licence | 4 points | Not stated on the page checked | The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months. |
| Provisional P1 | 4 points | Not stated on the page checked | The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months. |
| Provisional P2 | 7 points | Not stated on the page checked | The licence is suspended, or a renewal is refused, for 3 months. |
The page read here sets the learner, P1 and P2 limits and does not state the unrestricted or professional driver limits, so those are not shown. Four points is a single mid range speeding offence in most schedules, which is why a learner licence has less room than people assume.
- Source
- Learner and provisional driver demerit points
- NSW Government. Checked 28 August 2026. This page sets the learner, P1 and P2 limits. It does not state the unrestricted or professional driver limits, so those are not shown here.
The New South Wales knowledge test practice for this site is on the NSW hub.
Queensland: the thresholds
Set by Department of Transport and Main Roads. Read off the agency page on 28 August 2026.
| Licence | Limit | Counted over | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class C learner licence | 4 or more points | A continuous 1 year period | The licence is suspended for 3 months. There is no good driving behaviour option on a class C learner licence. |
| P1, P2, provisional or probationary | 4 or more points | A continuous 1 year period | A notice is issued and the holder chooses between a 3 month suspension and a 1 year good driving behaviour period. Picking the good behaviour period and then collecting 2 or more points during it means a 6 month suspension. Making no choice by the date on the notice means the 3 month suspension starts automatically. |
| Open licence | 12 or more points | A 3 year period | 12 to 15 points is a 3 month suspension, 16 to 19 points is 4 months, and 20 or more points is 5 months. A 1 year good driving behaviour period can be chosen instead. |
Queensland is the clearest of the three, because the thresholds and the windows are both stated. The detail worth noticing is that a learner has no good behaviour option at all, while a provisional holder does.
- Source
- Provisional licence demerit points
- Department of Transport and Main Roads. Checked 28 August 2026.
The Queensland knowledge test practice for this site is on the QLD hub.
Western Australia: the thresholds
Set by Department of Transport. Read off the agency page on 28 August 2026.
| Licence | Limit | Counted over | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| First year of a provisional licence | 4 or more points | A 3 year period | The permit or licence may be suspended or the holder disqualified. |
| Second year of a provisional licence | 8 or more points | A 3 year period | The licence may be suspended or the holder disqualified. |
| All other drivers | 12 points | A 3 year period | An Excessive Demerit Points Notice is issued. Electing a good behaviour period and then breaching it doubles the disqualification, so 3 months becomes 6. |
Points expire three years from the date of the offence unless the threshold is crossed first. The agency page treats learner permit holders and provisional drivers together as novice drivers and sets the two provisional year figures, so no separate learner permit figure is shown here.
- Source
- Driving on your P plates
- Department of Transport, Western Australia. Checked 28 August 2026. This page treats learner permit holders and provisional drivers together as novice drivers. It sets the two provisional year figures and does not set a separate learner permit figure, so none is shown.
The Western Australia knowledge test practice for this site is on the WA hub.
Five jurisdictions carry no numbers here
The agency pages for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory did not return content on the check date. Their thresholds are easy to find in search results, on law firm pages and on other practice sites, and those are exactly the sources this site does not copy from. A blank row with a link to the agency is more useful than a filled row that might be a year out of date, on a subject where being a year out of date costs somebody their licence.
- Victoria
- Transport Victoria, demerit points
- The agency page could not be retrieved on the check date. Victoria counts learner permit and probationary points over a different window from a full licence, and getting that window wrong changes the answer, so nothing is filled in from memory or from a third party.
- South Australia
- SA.GOV.AU, driving laws, offences and penalties
- The agency page could not be retrieved on the check date, so no South Australian threshold is shown.
- Tasmania
- Transport Services Tasmania, demerit points
- The agency page could not be retrieved on the check date, so no Tasmanian threshold is shown.
- Northern Territory
- NT.GOV.AU, demerit points
- The agency page could not be retrieved on the check date, so no Northern Territory threshold is shown. This matches the rest of the site, where the Northern Territory is the least documented of the eight systems.
- Australian Capital Territory
- Access Canberra, demerit points and suspensions
- The agency page could not be retrieved on the check date, so no ACT threshold is shown.
How this page was made
- One kind of source onlyA threshold appears here when it was read off the responsible agency's own page. Law firm summaries, insurer explainers, search result snippets and other practice sites were not used, and no number on this page came from one.
- The agency's wording is keptLimits are printed as the agency writes them, including the words around the number, because four points and four or more points are not the same rule and rewriting one into the other loses the difference.
- Windows are shown or marked absentWhere a page did not state the period the points are counted over, the row says so rather than borrowing a window from a jurisdiction that does state one.
- Five jurisdictions are blank on purposeTheir pages did not return content on the check date. They keep their row, their agency name and a link, and no numbers at all.
Why the learner threshold catches people out
The rules are examinable, and the arithmetic is unforgiving.
The limit is smaller than a full licence by a long way
A New South Wales learner has a limit of 4 points. A Queensland open licence holder has 12 over three years. Both of those numbers are on the agency pages read for this page, and they are not in the same league. One mid range speeding offence carries enough points in most schedules to end a learner licence outright.
The suspension is not a warning
In New South Wales, reaching the limit means the licence is suspended, or a renewal refused, for three months. In Queensland a class C learner is suspended for three months with no good driving behaviour option at all, while a provisional holder is offered a choice between the suspension and a year of good behaviour. That difference between learner and provisional inside one state is the detail most summaries lose.
The window matters as much as the number
Queensland counts a learner over a continuous one year period. Western Australia counts over three years and expires points three years from the date of the offence. A threshold quoted without its window is close to useless, which is why the window has its own column above and why it says so when the page checked did not state one.
Questions people actually ask
- Question
- How many demerit points can a learner driver get?
- It depends on the jurisdiction and the numbers are not close to each other. On the pages read here, a New South Wales learner has a limit of 4 points and a Queensland class C learner is suspended at 4 or more points in a continuous one year period. Western Australia sets 4 points for the first year of a provisional licence and 8 for the second. The five other systems are not shown here because their agency pages could not be retrieved on the check date.
- Question
- Why are five jurisdictions blank?
- Because the agency pages for them did not return content on the check date. The thresholds are easy to find in search results, on law firm pages and on other practice sites, and those are exactly the sources this site does not copy from. A blank row with a link to the agency is more useful than a filled row that might be a year out of date.
- Question
- Do demerit points apply from the date of the offence or the date the fine is paid?
- That is a question for the agency, and the answer differs between jurisdictions. Western Australia states that points expire three years from the date of the offence. The rest is not something to take from a practice site, so the link to each agency is on this page for that reason.
- Question
- Is this legal advice?
- No. This is a reference to the thresholds published by three transport agencies, read on the date shown. Anything with a suspension attached to it should be checked against the agency, and anything already in dispute is a matter for a lawyer rather than a study site.
The jurisdictions behind these figures
Every figure above is read off one of these pages, where it sits next to the agency that published it and the date it was checked.