Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has used Vegemite diplomacy to urge British corporate chiefs to invest in Australia.
About two dozen of the UK's top executives attended a business breakfast - complete with tubs of Vegemite on the table - at the Australian High Commission in London on Tuesday.
Mr Turnbull - who has been in Germany, France and the UK talking up trade and investment - said Australia had avoided a hard landing from the end of the mining investment boom.
"The resilience of the Australian economy, because of our commitment to free trade and open markets, enabled us to power ahead,’’ he said.
One of the CEOs at the event was Sanjeev Gupta of the Liberty House Group, the consortium which has bought the embattled Arrium steel in South Australia.
“We look forward to you completing that acquisition and providing the investment support and the security for the people of Whyalla and the steel making operations there,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
Others included Maarten Wetselaar of Royal Dutch Shell and Astra Zeneca’s Pascal Soriot.
Mr Soriot announced a further $100 million investment in its biopharmaceutical manufacturing operation in Sydney, creating about 60 jobs and increasing exports by $2.4 billion over the next four years.
Sitting beside Mr Turnbull was Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller of Wellcome Trust and former head of MI5.
Mr Turnbull joked about his Spycatcher days when he took on and beat the British government in court.
“There are days when your predecessors wouldn’t have liked to be with me I think, but all is forgiven,’’ he said.
“I spent part of yesterday in the COBRA (security intelligence) briefing room deep underneath Whitehall. I did occur to me that 30 years ago, if I found my way into a basement under Whitehall, I mightn’t have been let out."
Mr Turnbull will have an audience with the Queen later in the day before heading back to Australia.
In March the Queen launched the baton relay for the 2018 Commonwealth Games which is being held on the Gold Coast.
The 91-year-old monarch has been invited to receive the baton at the end of the relay, but it is not yet known whether she will do so.
