Issue 125 March - April 2018

Concern over the future of AS/NZS 3000 and where it is heading under Standards Australia control has prompted Australasian electrical regulators to set up a working group to take a closer look at how the Australian standards organisation is developing its Wiring Rules.

With AS/NZS 3000 moving further away from alignment with the international standard for electrical installations with every modification it produces, electrical regulators on both sides of the Tasman have become increasingly concerned with the evolution of the joint electrical installation standard and want to arrive at a common position on how to deal with it.

Regulators from the eight Australian states and territories and New Zealand coordinate their activities through the Electrical Regulatory Authorities Council (ERAC), and it is an ERAC working group that will address matters such as the growing disconnection between AS/NZS 3000 and its source: IEC 60364.

Because AS/NZS 3000 is cited in various ways by these regulators, it plays a pivotal role in how they meet their obligations to ensure the regulations they produce will provide for the safety of the public.

A woman living on her own in Auckland and needing electrical work done fell victim in January to an unscrupulous electrician when he demanded cash for the job and refused to supply a CoC.

Seeking help, the woman contacted the EWRB and Energy Safety but could not get the answers she needed. She found the New Zealand Electrical Inspectors Association (NZEIA) website and contacted its president, Richard Gibbens, who was able to answer her questions and explain how the law worked.

Gibbens says the woman wanted to know if she was entitled to receive a CoC and wanted a tax invoice for the work, so he advised her on what steps she could take to get both documents supplied as the law requires.

“She told me that the electrician, who had been recommended to her, offered to do a cheap job in return for cash payment and pushed this from the start. Her response was that she was happy to pay the going rate and wanted the work to be covered by an invoice and a CoC.

“She had been told previously by a friend that without a CoC her insurance company would not pay out if the house caught fire and the new work was blamed as the cause of the fire.