Australia is once again "open for business" declared Tony Abbott, named Prime Minister of Australia last September in a landslide election victory, as he headed to North America on a trade delegation last month. The message emerging is that energy, industry and infrastructure are the big-ticket investment items in Abbott's Australia.

Mr Abbott won his mandate on a pro-business, anti-immigration platform, and promised to roll back previous Labor government initiatives such as the carbon tax to reduce the red tape placed on investment in the country.

His first Budget, delivered in May, featured an Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Programme - $484m over five years to help commercialise good ideas, create jobs and lift the capability of small business - an Industry Skills Fund to support the training needs of small to medium business; and a boost to wage subsidies to employers who hire mature age job seekers. It also cut the company tax rate by 1.5% effective 1 July 2015.

Ahead of hosting the G20 summit in November, Mr Abbott has been wooing world leaders. His most recent trip not only featured a visit to Indonesia - aiming to repair relations damaged by allegations of spying and asylum seeker policy - and France for the D-Day commemorations, but also included a 20-strong trade delegation to Canada and the US.

The first visit by an Australian PM to Canada since 2006, Mr Abbott visited Ottawa and Toronto, saying it was "an opportunity to reinvigorate the trade and investment relationship between Australia and Canada."  Canadian pension funds are being courted to invest in Australian roads, energy utilities, airports and ports.

But while the Canadian visit was good for business, the focus of the visit was on the US, Australia's largest source of foreign investment - US business accounts for more than $650bn in Australia. The relationship is reciprocal, too, with the US also the number one destination for Australian investment abroad; more than $470bn is invested by Australians in the US. This relationship - one of trade and of security - has always been essential to Australia, and will only deepen with the advent of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"Trade and investment bring jobs and prosperity and Australia is once again 'open for business'," Mr Abbott wrote on his blog. "The Government's drive to cut red tape and abolish taxes that reduce our international competitiveness, such as the carbon tax and the mining tax, is making Australia an even more attractive environment for investment from the  United States and Canada."

While in Houston - where more than 100 Australian companies are based - Mr Abbott announced Australia will establish a consulate-general in the city. Texas is the biggest exporting state in the US, and a consulate-general would allow Australia to "maximise the two-way trade and investment opportunities of  the US energy revolution," he said, stating an aim to make Australia an affordable energy superpower.

With the red tape on mining and industry relaxing, Australia is set to become the world's top exporter of liquefied natural gas and is already the largest exporter of black coal. Recognising the need to reduce carbon emissions, the Australian government is looking at a $2.55bn direct action policy and should encourage renewable energy such as wind, solar and geothermal.

With the carbon tax due to be abolished within weeks and the commercial and residential property market hot with a lot of investor and institutional interest – buoyed by historically low interest rates and a favourable economic and political environment – Australia is one to keep a close eye on.

Summarises Mr Abbott: "We are a significant, even a substantial, middle power. We should use our weight in the world for our own good, for the good of our friends and allies and neighbours."

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