Ok what about the first 8 lines in my post refferring to legality?

In my opinion the great stupidity in electrical rules is that New Zealander handy persons can legally do mains electrical work but the Australian ones can't even though both countries operate under the same standard, ANZ3000. They don't have a plague of deaths or burnt homes which the monopolistic electrical lobby here declare will occur if we were even to look at a naked mains wire, never mind installing or modifying wiring.

In my lifetime I have seen some electrical work that leaves one flabbergasted as to how these idiots got or retain a licence.

One lot wired an entire aerial line backwards , another lot managed to get the mechanical meter to run backwards

Another as an act of expediency put a cable between a roof tile & the woodwork

One clown broke more than he fixed & ended up, by doing what he was advised not to do & got bitten by putting a screw into the feeder.

The first example also wired a power pole such that the active wire rubbed through to the metal pole.

Another wired over the horse tack instead of removing it; also wired a light through a metal wall with no protection. It took us over an hour to find the neutral ground short as the new RCD was never going to like that.

You can often tell if they're married by the mess left & it a professional job as its not neat.

Best one seen was the new wiring in the new house one cable got run where the waste water vent was going and then, using its hole, ran the wire to the Island bench via the sewer.

And they complain about DIY.

I disagree with allowing unlicenced people to do electrical work. It is not a simple matter of flicking through a few pages of AS3000 and expecting to wire up a dwelling, nor is it as simple as copying what is in place next door because the standards may have changed since that building was wired. There is also another document called the NSW Service and Installation Rules which must be adhered to in its entirety if an installation is to be connected to the mains. Other states would have a similar document.

https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/nsw-plans-and-progress/regulation-and-policy/service-and-installation-rules

When I used to do electrical contracting a long time ago now, I'd lost count of the number of times I was asked to lower my price and compromise on quality and legality. A typical scenario was when one customer asked me to run cabling for low voltage downlights in figure-8 speaker wire because there was only 12V at the globes. What I couldn't make him understand was that there was still 240V coming to the fitting and then the voltage was lowered to 12V with a transformer.

If there are people out there who are prepared to ask others to break the law then imagine what they'd be prepared to accomplish themselves when doing their own work. Despite the fact that NZ has homogenised their accident data collection by redefining what is reportable and despite the fact that most who undertake their own electrical work do so only after isolating the circuit, electrocutions in NZ have gone up slightly. In my books, having received a few belts in my career, one death is two too many.

There is a reason why it is compulsory to undertake a 4 year apprenticeship before qualifying for a licence in Australia. It is because there is a hell of a lot to learn, even when only accounting for domestic installations. Practices have changed a lot since my apprenticeship days. White Cards, goggles, ear muffs, high vis vests were almost non-existent. Hard hats were usually an option. Usually only rules on wearing leather boots were enforced. One could not be employed now without having all that and more.

I am not sure of the rules that are in place for applying for an electrician's licence now but when I did, all non-government workers had to sit a 30 question oral exam on AS3000, with 2/3 of the questions being on earthing - covered in Section 5 of 'the bible' back then. If you got more than one question wrong on earthing or more than 3 overall, you failed and had to wait seven days before sitting the exam again. The failure rate for first-time applicants was about 15% with most of those getting through on the second try.

Here's a few questions to answer for yourselves:-

1. What is the minimum sized earthing conductor that can be used in a domestic installation? (Heaps of people get this one wrong)
2. If you find a roll of 1mm² is it okay to use it for a lighting circuit?
3. What is the current-carrying capacity of a length of 2.5mm² twin & earth running from the switchboard into the ceiling space and then down the wall to a GPO in the lounge room?
4. What is the minimum depth of a trench for running a cable under the back yard to the swimming pool?
5. If a light fitting is double-insulated, does an earth wire still need to be provided to the point?

If these questions can't be correctly answered immediately without needing to conduct research then this is the reason why unlicenced work should not become legal in Australia.

I also remain bewildered when people call mandatory licencing a cartel or monopoly. There are tens of thousands of electricians in NSW. A customer can pick any one of them to carry out electrical work. It's no different to any other specialty. I wouldn't want someone who wasn't a qualified dentist working on my mouth, for example.

And, yes, there are a few shoddy tradesmen around. It doesn't alter the fact that unlicenced work can be potentially dangerous.

QUOTE: Clipsal make US pattern plus bases and plug tops

In the standard pin pattern, yes.

That's good that Clipsal has competition, especially since they're foreign owned by same French giant that took over Square-D electrical in US. Contractors often buy from Hdwr stores as they get better buys than many electrical distributors.

Clipsal has always had competition. They swallowed some of it a long time ago though their main competitior, HPM, is still around but also owned by another French company called Legrand.

I don't contract anymore but if I did I wouldn't touch some of the stuff the hardware stores sell. It may claim to meet the relevant standards (as a lot of things do) but the quality is not up to par. One gets what they pay for and one thing I never liked doing was absorbing the cost of dealing with warranties.