US Vice President Joe Biden is urging Australia to do all it can to drive economic growth and become Asia's innovation powerhouse.
Addressing 60 business leaders at Sydney's Opera House, Mr Biden admitted Australia's success was in the "naked self interest" of his home country.
He said while the US was "the Pacific power", Australia lay at the centre of where the world economy was moving and had enormous opportunities for growth by becoming the world's biggest LNG exporter.
"It's overwhelmingly in our interests for you to become the innovation hub of the southern hemisphere," Mr Biden said.
"It's overwhelmingly in our interest for you to continue to grow."
Mr Biden landed in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon after spending the morning touring a Boeing factory in Melbourne where he praised Australia's strong trade ties with the US.
Security was tight at the Opera House with police patrolling on foot, bicycles, and horseback outside the landmark while a police helicopter and boats hovered nearby.
Innovation featured several times during the 90-minute business roundtable session, which was headed by Business Council of Australia boss Jennifer Westacott and startup entrepreneurs including Enabled Employment's founder Jessica May and the head of Sydney-based tech accelerator Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin.
Well-known business types including Visy Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt and GE Australia boss Geoff Culbert were also among the crowd who heard Mr Biden stress his support for improved productivity, better protection for workers and more progressive tax codes.
Mr Biden emphasised his interest in receiving any suggestions about how the US collaborate with Australian businesses and encourage them to take more risks.
He outlined what he saw as several shared traits between the two countries, including a unique disregard for authority.
"If there weren't an Australia, we would try to invent one," he laughed.
Mr Biden also expressed his desire for the ratification of the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, signed in February by 12 countries including Australia, Japan and the US.
He said while it would be difficult to get Congress to ratify the TPP, he was hopeful it would pass during the so-called "lame duck" period between November's presidential election and the winner's inauguration in January.
Earlier in Melbourne, Mr Biden told Boeing workers how important trade was in promoting prosperity and employment.
"So many jobs in both our countries depend on this," he said.
"When the middle class does well, everybody does well."
On a darker note, he condemned the shooting of three police officers in Louisiana at the weekend, branding it a "despicable act" and "an attack on our very way of life".
While in Sydney, Mr Biden is expected to dine with Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and meet with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before flying out on Wednesday.
