Australia needs to embrace risk and a adopt a certain chutzpah if it's to become an innovation nation, says tech powerhouse Israel.
The country's chief scientist Avi Hasson, dubbed by Wyatt Roy as Israel's chief entrepreneur, says that governments should go out on a limb to support startups and entrepreneurs.
"As counterintuitive as it sounds, government should actually take more risks than the private sector and help with the heavy lifting," Mr Hasson told AAP.
The chief scientist is among a group of Israeli government officials in Sydney this week on a trade investment trip.
While in town, Mr Hasson is holding talks with the Turnbull government about a research and development collaboration deal that would see Israeli and Australian companies work on jointly-funded projects.
The Israeli delegation, which includes startup founders, has met with members of Australia's academia, research and big business sectors to discuss the hi-tech nation's entrepreneurial expertise.
It has also signed a deal with the Commonwealth Bank to give the lender access to Israeli startups specialising in cyber-security and data.
Mr Hasson said interest from Australian government and corporate sectors in Israel's innovation policies was high.
"Everyone we've met is very keen to what are some of our principles and the practical experiences we've had in setting up an innovation hub," he said.
"Australia is starting off on a strong base - you have very strong (public) research here in several areas and some leading corporates, now it's about how you get to the next stage."
He said governments need to lead the way on risk taking and embracing failure.
"Unlike venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, governments are able to leverage failed startups for their spillover effect - the know-how, the intellectual property, the talent created and so on," he said.
"We have many great examples in Israel where companies who failed miserably from a financial point of view actually contributed a whole lot to dozens and dozens of new startups, who built on the collective knowledge of those failed companies."
The Israelis' visit comes shortly after Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy led a 50-strong government expedition to the startup nation in October.
The government's much-anticipated innovation policy agenda is expected to be launched before the end of December.
