In setting up his commission of audit, Treasurer Joe Hockey has opened a political can of worms.
The audit - last seen at a federal level in 1996 under John Howard - has virtually unlimited scope to look at all areas and levels of government and how they interact with the business and not-for-profit sectors.
Labor has been quick to seize on it as a broken promise, pointing to the coalition's previous guarantee to quarantine areas such as health and defence from cuts.
The challenge for Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott will be to go through what is likely to be a long shopping list of spending cuts, revenue measures and passing of roles away from the federal government to find the most politically palatable but fiscally responsible measures starting from the 2014/15 budget.
There is no doubt Labor ducked many hard decisions over the past six years to get the budget back into the black and on a sustainable footing amid growing demand for services from an ageing and growing population.
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Budget after budget, Labor treasurers overestimated revenues and promised surpluses before finding excuses not to balance the books.
The impact of the global financial crisis was one of the legitimate excuses.
But despite a wealth of advice on everything from tax reform to federal-state relations, many of the structural problems went unaddressed.
At every turn, Hockey criticised Wayne Swan and later Chris Bowen - over raising a debt limit he now plans to take to $500 billion. He also slammed cutting the budget in the wrong places and imposing revenue measures such as the carbon and mining taxes.
The budget and the Australian economy is now Hockey's problem.
The commission of audit - with its panel of experts - will give the treasurer some political cover for spending cuts, as well as handing over services to the private sector, charities and the states.
Giving the audit a tight timetable - to report well within the first year of the government's term - will also assist in minimising the fallout.
But Abbott and Hockey will have a hard task to convince the public that opening the can of worms is a prudent way to start fishing for savings.
