Australia should accelerate its transition out of coal power and embrace nuclear, the head of Canada’s Business Council says, in a challenge to bipartisan support for coal and Labor’s rejection of nuclear energy.

Goldy Hyder, the president and chief executive of the Business Council of Canada, made that comment on the sidelines of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum, after NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos talked about the importance of coal as an export and in the domestic energy mix.