[gambiting]

I think we can all agree that Australia is taking it waaaaay too far, and requiring a licenced electrician to change your own light switches is just dumb, and it has nothing to do with safety but making sure that electricians have a steady source of bread doing work that anyone should be able to do with a screwdriver.

Unless Australia has a much lower rate of home electrical accidents than rest of the world, I refuse to believe that this is a good thing.

Sorry, a bit offtopic but that partiular thing really grinds my gears, especially since it covers any cabling that goes inside your wall, so even just running an HDMI cable inside your wall requires a certified electrician to sign off on it.

[ceejayoz]

I mean, when I moved into my house in the US there were ground wires in the outlet boxes, but none of them were actually hooked onto the outlets. I'd agree Australia's restrictions are too far, but "DIY all you like with things that could kill the next person" has its issues too.

[Nextgrid]

Unless there's mandatory, regular and thorough inspections of licensed work, making said work require licensing isn't actually going to increase quality. I've seen absolutely terrible, dodgy and unsafe stuff left behind by trained, licensed & well-paid professionals that only "worked" due to a combination of luck & safety margins.