Application and nature of Australian Standards and Wiring Rules

5.5.1 I have made reference above to both the Wiring Rules, and to other Australian Standards (which the Wiring Rules also are). It is necessary to say a little more about each.

5.5.2 Wiring Rules

5.5.3 The Wiring Rules provide minimum requirements for the design and construction of electrical installations and their safe operation.45 _{The Wiring Rules cover all building}

electrical installations and are applied through legislative adoption in States and Territories of Australia. All licenced electrical contractors and electricians are bound to comply with the Wiring Rules.46 _{Only such licensed persons are able to perform work legally}

on electrical installations. The Wiring Rules are also an Australian and New Zealand Standard (Australian/New Zealand Standard 3000:2007) and have been used in regularly updated editions since 1931. The most recent Wiring Rules were issued in 2007 and these continue (with further updates and amendments) to apply to the present day. One of the major changes in the current (2007) issue of the Rules was an expansion of the use of RCDs to socket outlet and lighting circuits rated up to 20 Amperes (with some exceptions).47

43 Australian/New Zealand Standard 3000:2007 Electrical installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules), clause 4.5.2.

44 See, for example, anecdotal evidence of Mr Hannam: Transcript (15 March 2014) 3104-3105 (M Hannam). 45 Australian/New Zealand Standard 3000:2007 Electrical installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand

Wiring Rules), clause 1.1.

46 See Electrical Safety Act 1971 (ACT) s 5; Electrical (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2006 (NSW) cl 32; Electricity Reform (Safety and Technical) Regulations 2000 (NT) reg 3; Electrical Safety Regulation 2013 (Qld) s 70; Electricity (General) Regulations 2012 (SA) reg 53; Occupational Licensing (Standards of Electrical Work). Code of Practice 2013 (Tas) cl 7; Electricity Safety (Installations) Regulations 2009 (Vic) reg 106; Electricity (Licensing) Regulations 1991 (WA) reg 49.

47 Australian/New Zealand Standard 3000:2007 Electrical installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules), clause 2.6.3.2.

5.5.4 Homeowners are not, as a rule, qualified or licenced to do such electrical work. It is an offence for a person to undertake electrical work without being licenced.48 _{Despite that,}

however, homeowners may in reality do their own electrical work and do so less than satisfactorily with that fact never coming to the attention of the relevant authorities.

5.5.5 Australian Standards

5.5.6 Australian Standards, do not, without more, have the force of law.

5.5.7 Two relevant Australian Standards were mentioned in the Guidelines for the HIP:

5.5.7.1 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 (AS/NZS 4859.1:2002) is the Standard for Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions. It was approved in 2002, and subsequently reissued in 2006. The object of it is to address the standardisation of performance verification requirements of thermal insulation materials (excluding glazing) that may be used in buildings.49 _{It is not an installation standard. It addresses}

questions such as the thermal resistance of insulation including by reference to its ‘R-value’, standard methods for determining thermal properties, and other considerations such as infrared admittance, solar reflectance and corrosiveness.50 _{It imposes requirements for packaging and labelling.}51

The Standard also addresses, in various specific sections, thermal insulation of particular kinds. Section 9, for example, deals with reflective insulation, being defined as insulation that incorporates a reflective metallic surface in the form of either a rolled metallic foil or metallic deposit.52 _{Reflective insulation may be}

in various product groups.53 _{Some of the principal concerns of the Standard}

appear to be surface corrosion and wet delamination.54 _{This Standard}

does not concern itself with techniques to be adopted in the installation of insulation.55 _{It deals expressly with certain types of materials and systems, but}

this is not intended to displace the use of other materials. Clause 1.3 of that Standard provides:

This Standard should not be interpreted as preventing the use of systems and materials that meet the performance criteria set out in this Standard, but are not specifically referred to it in.56

48 Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004 (ACT) s 84; Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) s 14; Electrical Workers and Contractors Act (NT) s 53; Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld) s 55; Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995 (SA) s 13; Occupation Licensing Act 2005 (Tas) s 22; Electrical Safety Act 1998 (Vic) s 38; Electrical (Licensing) Regulations 1991 (WA) reg 19.

49 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, clause 1.1.

50 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, clauses 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5.

51 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, section 3.

52 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, clause 9.1.

53 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, clause 9.2.

54 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, subclause 9.3.3.

55 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, Preface.

56 Australian/New Zealand Standard 4859.1:2002 Materials for the Thermal Insulation of Buildings—General Criteria and Technical Provisions, clause 1.3.

5.5.7.2 AS 3999-1992 is entitled ‘Thermal Insulation of Dwelling—Bulk Insulation— Installation Requirements’. This Standard deals with the installation of ‘bulk’ thermal insulation in all classes of dwelling.57 _{It did not purport to apply to, for}

example, RFL thermal insulation materials because it refers to ‘bulk insulation materials’ (in section 1.5) as ‘those in the form of batt, blanket, rigid board or loose fill’.58 _{It was necessary in the HIP Guidelines to import a provision of the}

Wiring Rules about the clearances for the placement of insulation, so as to ensure application of clearance rules to foil (and not just bulk insulation).59

5.5.7.3 AS 3999-1992 had application by reason of the HIP Guidelines requiring compliance with it by installers.60 _{However, the only Australian Government}

sanction for non-compliance was de-registration from the HIP, and there was, as I show below, no more than a perfunctory attempt by the Australian Government to monitor or audit compliance with the Australian Standards until the HIP was approaching its demise.61 _{The States and Territories had}

absolutely no opportunity to undertake such audits and inspections because, as one Coordinator-General of a State told the Commission, State authorities did not know where installations done under the HIP had occurred.62

5.5.7.4 Another way in which Australian Standards might have the force of law is by being made a Code of Practice for the purposes of occupational health and safety law. In that case, those Standards constitute one means (and one means only) by which the general duties might be imposed.63 _Neither

AS 3999-1992 nor the Wiring Rules ever achieved that status, for example, in Queensland.

5.5.7.5 Yet another way in which Australian Standards achieve some legal effect is by the Courts having regard to them as evidence of what is known about a hazard or risk and placing reliance upon them in determining what is reasonably practicable in the circumstances.

5.5.7.6 It is important to know that almost always, when Wiring Rules are altered, the changes do not operate retrospectively. It would be harsh to impose on every homeowner, a duty to bring their home into compliance with rules as they evolve and change. When building standards change, for example, it is generally not expected that all homeowners will make structural changes.

5.6 General

5.6.1 Finally, I turn to the general risks which are of a miscellaneous kind which face those entering roof voids and doing work in them. As the death of Mr Marcus Wilson demonstrates, the heat which can be experienced in ceiling voids is so intense as might cause heat exhaustion and ultimately death.64 _{Mr Hannam in particular gave}

evidence of the extreme nature of the conditions in ceilings, especially in summer,

57 Australian Standard 3999-1992 Thermal Insulation of Dwelling—Bulk Insulation—Insulation Requirements, clause 1.1.

58 Australian Standard 3999-1992 Thermal Insulation of Dwelling—Bulk Insulation—Insulation Requirements, clause 1.5.

59 AGS.002.026.0191, 8.

60 AGS.002.042.0057, 1; AGS.002.026.0191, 8. 61 AGS.002.028.0285, 2.

62 Statement of Hook at [33], STA.001.027.0001, 25 March 2014.

63 See for example Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) ss 274, 275 (if approved by the Minister, and notification of such approval has taken place).

of the need to drink very large quantities of water and the fact that workers need to be introduced into that environment slowly and to learn how their body reacts to the exigencies of such circumstances.65