I said people with trade skills - and there are many who work, with gas in particular, at much higher pressures and volumes than anything your local plumber will ever come across.
Same goes for pipefitting - the pipe fitting your local plumber will be doing is very basic compared to some other industries. The downside to a poor job in many homes is probably nothing more than some water where it ought not to be - and that should only be a problem for the individual if work was not done properly - we should not be penalising the whole community with higher costs for basic trade skills. Yes I would get rid of the licence requirement - it is a rort and probably leading to people who have no trade skills attempting work that they have no experience in because it is becoming prohibitively expensive to employ a plumber - or electrician for that matter. The latest based around this licence scam is the need now to have a licenced contractor electrician sign a bit of paper when you have a new GPO installed - apparently a bog standard sparky with no contractor licence is not up to the job!! - and the scam just gets bigger and bigger. Perhaps we would be better off with the Chinese running the joint.
