Electricity prices should be competitive for Australian businesses and consumers given the abundance of natural resources here, the head of the Reserve Bank of Australia says.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly told RBA governor Philip Lowe in a parliamentary economics committee hearing on Friday that local power prices were three to four times higher than in Canada's major cities.
He asked Dr Lowe whether, hypothetically, higher electricity prices could affect the competitiveness of the Australian economy and country's ability to attract foreign businesses here.
Dr Lowe said it would be remarkable if energy costs were a competitive disadvantage for Australia, given the nation's abundance of natural resources and the fact local gas and coal exports were underpinning growth, particularly in Asia.
"We have a huge abundance of energy and we're supplying it to the rest of the world, so we should be able to supply it to our own businesses, and firms and households at competitive rates," he told the committee on Friday.
