Brazil wants more Australian investors and a closer bilateral trade partnership now that a foreign-investment friendly government is in place, a business forum has been told.

Pro-market Michel Temer took over as president of Brazil last week, after the impeachment of leftist leader Dilma Rousseff for budget mismanagement, amid the country's worst recession in three decades.

Mr Temer has vowed to jump-start the economy and has promised to trim a budget deficit and make Brazil a more attractive destination for investment.

Fresh from the Rio Olympics and with the 2016 Paralympics still to come in the next fortnight, Brazilian trade agencies are also hoping to keep the country top-of-mind of investors worldwide. 

Ambassador to Canberra Manuel dos Santos told a Brazilian-Australian delegation in Melbourne on Tuesday that Brazil was open for business.

"Distance is no longer a barrier any more – the largest barrier we do face is the total lack of mutual knowledge. We don't know enough about each other," Mr dos Santos said. He hoped delegations such as the one visiting Melbourne and Sydney would help explore "the enormous potential that our two countries have". 

He said Brazil and Australia shared a 70-year diplomatic relationship – Australia opened its first diplomatic mission in Rio de Janeiro in 1945, but were yet to have a stable trade partnership.

"For some unexplainable reason we never really explored our full potential. Whenever Australia was doing fine, Brazil was not, and vice versa. We tried many times to get closer together, but we never really managed. Now is the moment in which we have to really explore this enormous potential we have," he said.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop signed a memorandum of understanding on education, research and vocational training with Brazil's previous administration while on a visit to the country in July 2015.

With a nod to the strife that saw investors spooked as the economy contracted 3.85 per cent in 2015, Mr dos Santos said "we have been facing some problems recently but now things tend to be getting in order and we are now able to face the economic problems we've been having.

"This is the moment to invest, this is the moment to start doing really serious business. If you compare what we've done so far with the potential we have, we have a lot of work on our hands."

Australian investment in Brazil has largely centred on mining interests in the past, but Mr dos Santos and the Brazilian Austrade equivalent agency, Apex, are hoping Australian business may see the potential of the country's 200 million people market.

Mr Temer held bilateral talks with Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Spain while at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, on the weekend. Tax evasion and minimisation by multinational corporations and high-net worth individuals were also on his agenda. As of 2018, Brazil will begin sharing tax information with OECD countries after ratifying an OECD accord in June.

Rousseff supporters have continued to protest her impeachment, confronting the new Temer government with seven protests in as many days.

The trade push comes as Australia and Britain are said to be working on a bilateral trade agreement that would be the Britain's first since it voted to exit the European Union.

Through Mercosul – a South American trade bloc – Brazil has trade pacts with Israel and India, in addition to Mexico and Cuba. It has also been courting a closer relationship with China.

Meanwhile, Brazilian courts continue to prosecute more and more people in widening corruption probes which this week saw dozens of senior financiers and executives ordered away from their firms, including billionaire Wesley Batista, the chief executive of the world's biggest beef exporter, JBS.

Police carried out five arrests, more than two dozen interrogations and more than 100 search warrants, seizing jewels, luxury vehicles, artwork and an plane in an asset freeze to cover up to 8 billion reais ($3.2 billion) in alleged damages.

The investigation of fraud concerns state-run companies' pension funds and involves names already connected with other corruption investigations, including that of Petrobras.

The federal judge overseeing the case ordered Batista and 39 others under investigation to suspend their corporate roles, avoid all capital market activity and forfeit their passports in order to avoid jail.

JBS Australia employs 8500 and is the largest meat processing company in Australia, according to the company's website.