Morrison recalls American's key question

"How can I help you win today?"

That was the exuberant phrase one of Scott Morrison's American friends used to say.

"When you hear that for the first time you sort of recoiled a bit as an Aussie, and think that is a bit full on, that's a bit much," the federal treasurer recalled to the National Press Club in Canberra.

But Mr Morrison said Clay Nelson, a businessman from Texarkana who he met while living in New Zealand with his wife Jenny, meant every word of it.

"Every single deal he went into, every relationship, he took that attitude, how can I help the person on the other side of that table win today?"

Mr Morrison recited some of the colourful tales of Mr Nelson, the duck shooting Texan whose father was allegedly the first Elvis impersonator in history, as he began his major pre-budget address on Wednesday.

He used the story of Mr Nelson's "how can I help you win today" to frame his speech entitled `Backing Australians in our transitioning economy'.

"Now, in Australia, if I was to translate Clay's "how can I help you win today", I'd say "how can I back you in today?", he said.

"You're out there trying to make something happen, how can I, as treasurer, how can the government, back you in, in terms of what you're doing and what you are hoping to achieve.

"That's our job."