Business groups have called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to get the ball rolling on policy reforms like taxation changes and the deregulation of workplace laws.

They have broadly welcomed the change of leadership, although the peak small business group said it was concerned that its interests could be ignored by the new Government.

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Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox told AM it was time to set a new direction.

"This is an opportunity for some renewal and some refreshment around the political and the policy debate," he said.

"All within the business community look forward to seeing what the new Government, under the new prime minister, can deliver both in terms of tone and in terms of outcome to make Australia a more productive and competitive place," Mr Willox told AM.

But Mr Willox said the business community did not expect too many surprises.

"Well we've got to remember that we're in an election year," he said.

"We're less than a year from an election, so I think the first thing that you could really expect is perhaps a change in tone, laying out some of the challenges that we have and so that we have a no surprises approach to the next year."

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) said it hoped to see more economic reform from the new Turnbull government.

ACCI chief executive Kate Carnell said the new government needs to step up the pace of change.

"Recently business, the unions, the community sector got together at the National Reform Summit to look at a range of the sorts of reforms we want to see happen," she said.

"Unless business is confident, they don't invest, they don't employ and what Australia wants from business is more employment."

But the peak small business group said it was concerned about the economic policies of the new prime minister.

Peter Strong, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Australia, said he was worried the Turnbull government would be too close to the big end of town.

"I'm really concerned that big business are having far too much influence — some big business not all of them — far too much influence in government," Mr Strong told AM.

"If they've made a decision here on behalf of the rest of us that there should be a change of leadership, then I think we need to know about that."

Mr Strong said if big business made it clear that it was going to support a leadership challenge, then a lot of Coalition MPs could have been influenced.

"It would have swayed a lot of Coalition MPs, particularly people in cabinet," he said.

Dollar lifts after leadership change

The local currency increased by about 0.5 per cent to around 71.5 US cents after Mr Turnbull was named as the new Liberal Party leader last night.

Market strategist Evan Lucas, from IG Markets, said the leadership change boosted the local currency, although the weaker greenback was also playing a part.

"Clearly what happened in the Aussie dollar is telling you there was a positive move," he said.

"If you have a look at the trading in the Aussie-US pair from the 24 hours previously, it's moved up 1.35 per cent, which is very, very positive."