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.