[ghaff]

That's interesting. The viral Australian "Dumb Ways to Die" video [1] from a couple of years back by Metro Trains Melbourne included a snippet about "doing your own electrical work" which seemed rather incongruous to me as a fairly typical American with a house who doesn't think twice about swapping light switches and such. (Especially given the popular image of self-reliant Australians and all that--however atypical sheep and cattle stations may be of the average resident.) I guess that's the reason.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/nov/28/dumb-ways...

[taneq]

The counterpoint to the "self-reliant Australian" image is the fact that historically the Australian government has been very protectionist about local markets and trades. There are strong trade unions that have lobbied to keep non-trade-qualified people from doing basic maintenance - hell, it's technically illegal to do your own plumbing: http://www.licensedtrades.com.au/licensed/plumbers

(Edit: As in, it's not just illegal to plumb your entire house. It's illegal to replace a tap.)

[sitharus]

It's also illegal to wire in your own ethernet jacks. Crazy.