Time for a change in the electrical wiring rules

As foreshadowed last month, we have produced a petition to politicians throughout Australia, to change the electrical wiring rules in each state, to the system which has been used in New Zealand since 1992. This allows homeowners to do their own electrical wiring.

I appeal to all readers to check out pages 48 & 49 of this issue. Strictly speaking, you will find that it is a "letter of will" rather than a petition because petitions have a long record of being ignored by politicians and parliaments. Please fill in the form and send it to us so we can send it on to the relevant politicians in each state. We need your support.

Since it was raised back in June 2000, this issue has generated far more heat, and more correspondence, than any other. More particularly, we have been accused of producing a hate campaign against electricians and being one-sided in our publica­tion of the various letters.

Well, readers can draw their own conclusions on both as­pects but it is well to remember why the whole debate was trig­gered off in the first place: because it is now illegal for anyone in Queensland to assemble or repair a mains-powered pro­ject or appliance unless they are a licensed electrician. This ludicrous situation applies to the repair of all electronic equipment, whether it is a VCR, TV or exotic medical equipment such as CT scanners - regardless of the fact that most (not all, I hasten to say) electricians have very little knowledge of electronics.

Then a reader brought our attention to the fact that, in New Zealand and other countries, homeowners can not only do repairs on electrical equipment, they can also do their own home wiring. This situation in New Zealand has been in place since 1992. And apparently, there has been no increase in electrical fatalities since its inception.

Since we made this point, some readers have claimed that the New Zealand statistics are dodgy. Well, they’re not. We do not think there will be an increase in deaths brought about by dodgy wiring, when homeowners are eventually allowed to do their own wiring. Rather, we expect overall safety to improve because the various electrical authorities will be forced to carry out educa­tion campaigns on how wiring should be done. We look forward to that.

Since this situation has blown up, NCP (National Competi­tion Policy) reviews of electrical safety related legislation have started in most states. These reviews will impinge directly on this issue of home-wiring. Interested readers are invited to make submissions but you will need to move quickly. In Queens­land, if you want to make a submission, you need to contact the Queensland State Treasury by the end of this month (31st March 2001).

The same advice applies to Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales. The legislation in each state should be changed. Let’s get it done.