You're absolutely right, it is ridiculous and wasteful, designed to pander to some people's profits and to other people's lazy, fearful ignorance. It also makes our society far more brittle, as the supply of certified electricians is inelastic but the demand for them very unpredictable.

So about typical for our government, at all levels.

But having once worked as a crisis counsellor, no way Jose do I want to be vulnerable to jackbooted petty autocrats stealing my stuff or jail me like what some of my clients went through. Or friends in their younger years. I have a middle-class accent, a decent grounding in law, and a lawyer's number in my phone, but a time may come when that's not enough. So if I can plan a way to jump, dive or roll through a legal loophole without it costing me too much, I do it.

I sent excited traffic-stop cops home with sad faces three times during COVID lockdown, because my paperwork was in order. Essential Worker, KMA!

(But if I lived out in the sticks like my sister and BIL, I'd care a whole lot less. I'm in Melbourne).