Before Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency – also known as DOGE – was even a thing, I ran a similar operation for the Coalition government in NSW. Here is what I learnt: to treat the effectiveness of government spending as a moral issue, do the work and go through the spending line by line, and be data-driven.

When the Barry O’Farrell Liberal/Nationals government opened the books the day after the landslide 2011 election win, we faced a $5 billion black hole. Our funded commitments, including almost 4000 more teachers, nurses and police, faced some hefty budget surprises from outgoing Labor’s maladministration rat’s nest.