Before I came Australia, about 20 years ago, I had the impression that the country was pretty laid back. I'm not sure whether it really was then, but over the years, it seems to have become ever more nit-pickingly regulated.

One thing that's really irritated me is the restriction on doing ones own electrical work. I lost count of how many faulty switches and light fittings I replaced in the house in the UK. I looked it up on Google Earth recently, and it's still there, so I can't have messed up that badly.

A couple of years ago the UK decided to clamp down somewhat on DIY electrical work, but a home owner can still replace fittings and cables themselves. The same is true in New Zealand.

Really, work at this level is hardly difficult, nor does it require any great skill. It's only when one starts doing installations from scratch, or major alterations to circuitry, that the knowledge of a qualified tradesman becomes important.

Yet here in Australia, if a lamp socket cracks, or a switch makes the lights flicker, it's time to get out the Yellow Pages, and to be prepared for a bill that's significantly more than the cost of the electrical item itself.

How is it that Australia doesn't trust its people even to perform the most basic tasks without them being formally qualified and licensed. As regards the latter, it seems to me that the law says that even someone who's been an electrician all their life cannot change a lamp socket in their own home once their certificate (renewable three yearly for $hundreds) expires.

Sylvia you are right to a degree.Generally with electrickery leave it to the professionals.If you have safety switches there are no worries in changing light bulbs but you can change you own tap washes.Just don't tell our totally incompetent NSW Socialists Govt, who want to control everything we do.Echoes of the old Soviet era eh?

NSW Socialist government, how crimson silly that comment!
It is safety folks, if not your own the people who buy your home one day.
Changing bulbs was never the intent ,if you think it was get some one with more understanding to do that too.
Time and again I see home brew electrics repairs that could kill, 3 times in my life I saw such that did.
My home was built by a shonk, who saved money on light switch's , in most dangerous ways , every one of them has been changed at cost to me.
My hobby is ham radio I understand the issues but obeyed a law aimed at saving my life and those who may live here one day.
A NEEDLESS DEATH IN YOUR FAMILY MIGHT HELP UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR SAFETY.
REGARDS

I'm a kiwi living in Aus. Your post is just BEGGING for some free shots and Aussies. BUT, all you need to do is look at the facts that you have already posted....

"A couple of years ago the UK decided to clamp down somewhat on DIY electrical work, but a home owner can still replace fittings and cables themselves. The same is true in New Zealand."

But you can't in Australia?. What's that saying about Australians? ;o)

Also...maybe unions have something to do with it (influence on gov policy). At a factory job I use to work at, if there was a job that you could fix but it really fell under the workload of 'maintenance'. No matter how simple it was, you had to get them to do it because of the union influence on the white collars.

NZ's different, to a point. And so is In-ga-land, I believe. (know a sparky that worked there).

Just out of interest, how many people in the UK and NZ die or get injured from electrocution or from fires caused by faulty wiring?

When I was in the US I got zapped while trying to unplug a refrigerator. There wasn't enough plastic around the plug to prevent someone curling the end of their fingers around it before the circuit was broken.

Part of the fallacy behind requiring that all electrical work be done by a licensed professional is that it acts as a guarantee that the work will be done properly. In practice, of course, professional competence varies, as does the motivation to do the job to an acceptable standard.

This is an example of something perpetrated on me by qualified professionals during a recent kitchen upgrade.

http://www.cryogenic.net/gas/S_GasInstall%20001.jpg

In this case it was the gas fitter who installed the pipes in violation of the wiring rules, but it still makes the point. I made the kitchen installation company come back and correct it. Some years ago, I had air conditioning installed, and discovered that the qualified electricians involved had simply laid loose cables across the rafters in my roof space. Fortunately I had not yet paid (Energy Australia), and they had to come back and do it properly. BTW, it was the same group of professionals that forgot to replace one of the tiles on my roof - something we only discovered when it rained.

I can see no reason why it would not be possible to provide a relatively limited amount of training to householders that ensured that they were competent to perform normal domestic wiring tasks, to at least the level of quality actually delivered by many alleged professionals.

You want to start a scheme where everyone gets some training as an electrician? Is this supposed to save us money?

Freediver,

I didn't mean that everyone would receive it. Just that a person would have the the option of receiving it, and thereby become entitled to do some degree of wiring in their own home.

I'm not talking about training to the level of a professional electrician, just the simpler tasks such as replacing light sockets and power points, replacing damaged cables, and perhaps extending existing circuits to add new light sockets and power points. Things that people in New Zealand and UK are still allowed to do without formality. I'd be surprised if anything more than a one day course were required - particularly if the work is limited to replacing existing fixtures.

After all, we're still allowed to fit plugs, and I can lawfully wire up a power outlet, lamp socket, or extension lead, provided it's not part of the fixed wiring. Yet the risks are the same if I don't know what I'm doing.

There's a limit to how much most people want to be allowed to do anyway. What galls me about the current situation is that some tasks can be done in less time than it takes merely to organise an electrician, let alone hanging around waiting for one to arrive.

In the UK, under the regulations introduced in 2005, it's only a five day course to become deemed competent to self certify even extensive domestic wiring work.

http://faradaycentre.co.uk/EAL.htm

I wonder what a guy out in the bush is expected to do when a light socket fails - is it really reasonable to say that he has to call a sparky in to fix it, even though that may involve a several hour round trip on the road? I wonder how many farmers actually do that, rather than quietly fixing it themselves.

There's an advertising campaign that I heard recently informing people about the dangers and law regarding DIY wiring. Presumably, then, there's a significant level of non-compliance. I doubt the campaign will have much effect. It would be better to try to educate people so that they can do the job safely.

So your solution is to create another level of bureacracy? In addition to licenced electricians, there should be a second lciensing scheme for 'not quite electricians' who can only do certain jobs and only in their own homes. Do you really think people would pay for this licence that doesn't grant them anything that they can't already do anyway?

Some times truly it is not worth the effort to rebut claims that are so baseless as to be childish.
One claim here is just that, reality rebuts your claim ST G that the reason we have such laws in to keep the work in union hands.
Very few electrical contractors are in a union, rural NSW is mostly one man shows.
Mate can it be you truly think other than safety is the reason?
Lets tip the debate upside down.
Say NSW made a law saying you could install some wiring, some switch's, do some work your selves.
Within weeks deaths would occur, without doubt, ever seen that toaster dad did? earth not connected or such, it is an every day thing.
Soon after those deaths posts would appear here saying NSW Socialist government murders its people!
Just this week, in my workplace as a union official I found a electrical lead untagged in a major work site.
Two leads joined together one tagged one not, the join LAYING IN WATER!
Behind a ice making machine ,spaying water out the back from a hole that should have had a pipe.
An every day event in NSW a state that has at least one death at work and 10 at home each year by electrocution.
In this case the electrician was worthless, but would a plant operator be ok to do the job?

Belly,

I've recently heard a radio ad campaign aimed at telling people that electricity is dangerous, and that DIY wiring is unlawful. The mere fact that the ads are being aired suggests that there is a significant level of non-compliance, which is nevertheless not producing a large number of deaths.

As things stand there is no general education about safe wiring practices, because people are not meant to do it themselves. This unfortunately means that people are not given any understanding of *why* certain things have to be done the way they are. A little education would go a long way.

The toaster example is a case in point. No caring father would leave an earth wire unconnected if he understood why it was there. To the uneducated layman, it probably looks surplus to requirements - particularly as the appliance still works without it.

Sylvia.

Sylvia Else, I'll give you a hint about what happens in the bush. Basic jobs are just done. Most bushies though will still pay and wait to get an electrician to do extension wiring work. They just do their own switch and plug replacement. You are right in saying that a little bit of education goes a long way. Freediver is getting a little stirred up about creating another layer of electricians - we have owner/builder courses that are compulsory if you want to do cosntruction work to your own home. So its pretty easy to extend the same system to electrical work. Particularly something simple like replacing a switch - all you have to be able to do is replicate what's already in place. I think though the concern hinges around poor and therefore dangerous work in a house that you then sell. If you want to hurt yourself, well fine, so long as you dont put someone else in danger. That'll be the hard part to address.

Country Gal,

Yes, I rather suspected something like that was the case. After all, getting a sparky to drive for hours to do a trivial job is probably rather difficult, and it's hardly likely that an electrical inspector is going want to visit far away farmhouses on the off-chance that he'll find concrete evidence of an unauthorised switch replacement.

Using a professional for more complex tasks makes practical sense quite apart from the legality. It's easy to discover that some necessary piece hasn't been purchased, or that some essential tool isn't to hand. The professional is much more likely to know exactly what will be required or have the required item in his van, and of course, he'll have all the obscure tools needed for the job (such as three foot long drill bits). I've installed LAN and coaxial video cabling in my home (which I can lawfully do), and the task is always more difficult and time consuming than one might expect.

Free Diver, I'm not proposing any bureaucracy. A householder could simply book themselves into an approved short TAFE course, and be given a certificate entitling them to do some limited work. If the question of whether a piece of work was authorised ever arises, they produce the certificate - that's all.

So these certificates and 'approved' courses would not result in any added bureacracy?

WHAT a stupid suggestion - imagine everybody doing their own electric wiring, safety-switch installations.. ad infinitum ? For the price of your life, you are going to forego a few bucks ? Golly, some people will stoop so low to risk all for a couple of measly bucks. What damn good is your fat Bank account, or credit card going to do for your widow and siblings ? Why take the risk ? Boy, some dudes are really on another planet.

Some time ago, TAFE was advertising courses for just about every Trade under the sun. People flocked. On graduation, these 30 day wonders descended on suburbs with their newly found genius as ' handy-men 'Unsuspecting Poms, pensioners and residents wanting to save quids employed these dodos.

Result, they stuffed-upped every thing they tried, hurt themselves while performing tasks way beyond their capabilities, had NO worker's compensation or insurance and gave proper Tradesmen a bad name. Needless to say, the State Authorities put a stop to this dispora, and instituted licensing for all tradesman to stop this hazardous folly and exercised some common sense. They brought in ABN registrationing, and Trade certificate varifications to curb this silly amateurish practice which not only endangers lives, it is a practice abhored by all.
Let's put some sense back into this purile nonsense. It has gone on beyond a joke !
Life is precious mister ! Yours and mine.

"WHAT a stupid suggestion"

is the start of a posting that deserves no reply. Check "ad hominem".

That's not an ad hominem. It's the suggestion that was being derided as stupid, not the person. The rest of the post also criticises the idea itself.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/articles/logical-fallacies.html#ad%20hominem

Freediver,

A comment to the effect that a suggestion made by a poster is stupid is a criticism of the poster, whatever the form of the comment. Suggestions are not capable of being "stupid", because the word relates to a mental attribute. The comment is really a shortened form of "you must be stupid to have made the suggestion."

It is possible to criticise a suggestion without resorting to such tactics.

The comment "that's a stupid suggestion" is also a pre-emptive attack on those who might otherwise be inclined to support the suggestion.

About now we should see a claim addressed to me along the lines of "you're only refusing to respond because you cannot address the argument."

Sylvia.