In other words you couldn't just wire up a house with unswitched GPO's instead of normal switched ones. I don't have the book here, but I think the rule was that it has to be controlled by a switch within 1 or 1.8 metres (something like that) from the socket.
You're right, Section 4.9.4.3 of AS/NZS 3000:2000 calls the maximum distance as 1.5m from the socket.
