Start-ups and advanced manufacturing leaders welcome the stronger innovation focus in new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's cabinet but said they would be looking for new policies for a sector that has long survived on tough love.

"To be honest I am much happier that he [Mr Turnbull] is at the helm rather than [former prime minister Tony] Abbott, from a tech start-up point of view, but he's got to actually push some policy through that enables and supports innovation," said Martin Scicluna, co-founder of SmarterSoft, a data management and workflow software company.