Electrician charging $1000/day

I have heard that $100/hr or more is not out of the question nowadays. Considering that an electrical contractor is legally required to sign off on his work, i.e. he is personally responsible if fire/injury/death results from his work, and that he faces massive penalties from the authorities if his work is non-compliant in any way, shape or form, I don't thinik it's too expensive at all.

We have an electrician coming out next week to do something on our current house, he charges $65/hour.
Obviously not including any parts - unless very expensive parts are included in the $1000, then I would certainly get another quote, seems far too high.

I would think $1000 is excessive to replace existing light fittings and socket outlets with new ones.

Even if he supplied all the parts, if you're talking about downlights then they wouldn't be more than about $10-$15 each including globes (unless you go the much more expensive and energy-efficient "compact flourescent" globes, or the "LED" globes which are about $20+ for 1 globe!), and double socket outlets are under $10 each for decent brand name ones unless you go for the fancy glass-front ones which can be around $50 each.

I have heard of contractors charging over $100/hr, but they charge what they can get away with.

As was also mentioned, they need to guarantee their work - they do this by providing you with a copy of a "Certificate of Compliance - Electrical Work" form - which is always required no matter how small the job - with fines up to $2,500 for not issuing the customer with a copy - and a copy also goes to the electricity distributor for your area if there is an increase in load, or switchboard work or any new circuits added (including air conditioning).

It's probably also worth mentioning that if any work is over $1000 then they are also required to give you a contract for the work (as per fair trading; for any licenced work over the value of $1000).