The Test and Tag thread That's a huge part of the whole issue Matt, we have an Electrical Regulator that isn't fit for purpose, it lacks the resources to get Regulations citing Standards updated to the latest versions, much less investigate instances of non compliance, or provide clear guidance on alternative solutions to safe outcomes that will comply with the various provisions of the regulations that it is responsible for . — Steve H
But can the answer to bureaucratic failure ever be more bureaucracy (more regulations, NZQA standards, etc. for who can TnT)? You already rightly point out that the electricity regulator is stretched to regulate what is currently on their plate (and so is WorkSafe). Adding more can't help that.
To be honest, I see a similar thing has happened with HSWA. We have had a "major" rewrite of our H&S legislation expected to be administrated by a still under-resourced regulator, and unsurprisingly little has really come of it. And that is because the rewrite is basically following the same format as the old legislation that was failing, which was definitely not help by a regulator that was trying to go back to what it knew - HSE (I personally found it infuriating when the WorkSafe mantra was all about identifying your critical risks that could kill or seriously harm and controls those, which was basically a regurgitation of HSE's significant hazards requirements and didn't actually follow the "risk based approach" the new legislation was apparently putting forward... but that's off topic, sorry)
My suggestion is to actually clarify the electricity safety regulations by removing the term "electrically safe". This would remove the paradox where as per the regulation an appliance could be deemed to be electrically safe and electrically unsafe at the same time. And so the regulations would be focused on what is considered electrically unsafe, such as for the repair or sales regs - that an appliance is deemed electrically unsafe until tested as per the regulations.
The approach to ensuring that appliances are not electrically unsafe (so far as reasonably practicable) would be better placed within an Approved Code of Practice, which can better detail the wider range of measures required (and is somewhat easier to update as/when required, rather than having to go through the parliamentary processes.
And fair enough on the mandatory 3760 TnT never being claimed, I think I just got distracted by the "is there mandatory testing requirements" post.