Australia must ensure the United States remains focused on the Asian region after the upcoming presidential election, Julie Bishop says.
The foreign minister says it's in Australia's national interests to form and maintain "the closest of all possible relationships" with whoever wins the US presidency.
Ms Bishop was asked on Monday whether she was discomfited by "some of the meaner and smaller sides" of the current US debate, including Muslim immigration and sharp criticisms of free trade.
America is the single largest foreign investor in Australia, deeply engaged in the Asia Pacific, and relies heavily on regional allies for peace and stability, Ms Bishop said.
"I am confident that whoever is the American president, they will remain engaged strategically, politically, militarily, economically, culturally, in our region," Ms Bishop told a Lowy Institute lunch on Monday.
"But it would certainly be a responsibility of the Australian government to ensure that its focus is on our part of the world, and that our relationships between the United States and its allies in this region are well-appreciated and understood."
Ms Bishop later took aim at federal opposition MPs for publicly criticising the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
"We wouldn't appreciate it if US candidates did it in an Australian election, and I think it's very short-sighted of Labor to try and personalise the US presidential election when it's in our national interest for Australia and the United States to continue to be close economic and strategic partners," she told reporters after the event.
Ms Bishop would not comment on Mr Trump's calls overnight for the US to consider more racial profiling in law enforcement, after urging harsher policies following last week's mass shooting in Orlando.
"I'm not going to comment on domestic politics in the United States in the middle of an election campaign in Australia," she said.
"Our point about the US presidential election is that a re-elected coalition government will work constructively with whomever the American people choose as their president."
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