Speak up or shut up?

[strantor]

laws were passed to protect them making it illegal for Australians to do their own plumbing work. (and electrical)

In USA this is regional. In some places I believe it is the same as you describe but in most places you can do your own plumbing and electrical as long as service disconnect isn't required; if it is, then you must get a permit and hire an electrician. You can't do plumbing or electrical for other people though, unless you have a license.

This is something I was discussing a while back with the client that spawned this thread. The Manager was lamenting about not being able to find good maintenance guys and I said the problem is partially to do with the lack of licensure in the field. It really doesn't make much sense what requires a license and what doesn't. If you want to hire a plumber, electrician, or HVAC technician, you can restrict applications to those which have a journeyman or masters license and then you have some (sort of) guarantee about minimum level of knowledge and experience even if you aren't qualified to evaluate them yourself. But in the case of machine controls you just have to take a guy's word for it until results indicate he was full of crap.

But why HVAC and plumbing? Electrical is understandable but... plumbing? Come on. If plumbing makes sense then so does framing, sheetrock, oil changes, tire replacement, welding, concrete work, and hundreds of other professions ranging from skilled artisan to brute labor.

If it were consistent it would make sense but the way certain professions are cherry-picked for licensure does not. It feels like someone had a grand plan and only got 10% done rolling it out before they passed on. But I think the truth is more about unions that at one time were powerful enough to get their agenda codified into law. If there ever was a Lube Monkey union that was as big as the UA, then it might now be illegal for you to change your own oil and oil changes might take 6 days and cost $1k.

So really I don't know what's preferable, unions + guaranteed experience, or the wild west thing that leads to wingnuts miswiring control cabinets and creating dangerous situations.

EDIT: regarding plumbers, it just occurred to me that they handle gas lines. I've never lived in a house that had gas, so that's not something I think about. To me, plumbers are the guys who solder water pipes and unclog sewer drains.