This hasn't had wide publicity, so I thought I'd drop a quick note here for anyone who is in the midst of building a new home or has finished one in the last 12 months.
A NSW importer of Chinese electrical cable has "volunteered" to recall their product from the market after it was discovered to be sub standard. See...
http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/A ... ables.page
I've just built a new home and after the "painful" dealings I've already had with my builder and their subcontractors about other stuff, I can't see them volunteering to disclose this to me. I think it's poor form of the government not to be forcing the sparkies and builders to tell their customers if they used this cable or not. YOU have to ASK them. Hopefully they know.
My builder's sparky probably wires about 1000 new homes a year. If this cable is found in my new home, I realistically can't see them stump up very big bucks to rewire my home and a thousand others (and repair the damage) and they then have to sue their cable supplier (probably a $2 company) to recoup their costs. The sparkies would be smart enough to know that they will NEVER get their money back. Make sure you ask your builder in writing to confirm you are not effected. At least then, if your house burns down, you can sue them.