Christian Porter wants to go slow and steady "eating the hippo".
His new welfare portfolio that is.
The nation's new social services minister recognises the mighty task ahead of him having responsibility for nearly every cohort of the population, from babies to seniors.
The giant $140 billion portfolio includes some of the biggest single items of government spending, the $22 billion national disability insurance scheme and the $42 billion age pension.
Not to mention he's filling the shoes of cabinet's most outstanding performer Scott Morrison.
So what's first on his agenda?
"You know that old saying about how do you eat a hippopotamus? One bite at a time," Mr Porter told ABC radio on Monday.
"I've got a massive hippo in front of me at the moment so I'm just going to get in there and start chewing."
Mr Porter says he has the experience as a former West Australian treasurer to negotiate and find savings - and it's "almost a certainty" he will have to slash welfare spending.
But he is positive about the legacy left by Mr Morrison in his talks with Senate crossbenchers to pass unpopular and difficult budget measures.
He believes a plan to withhold welfare from jobless young people for a month is "completely fair".
"And I think the fairness of those can be sold to the crossbenchers."
The measures were reintroduced to parliament by Mr Morrison in one his final acts on the job last week.
Mr Porter said negotiations to get them passed were approaching a resolution.
The federal opposition has already handed the new minister a list of demands to clean up the "mess" left by his predecessors.
Besides the scrapping of the dole-wait measures, they include dropping parental payment cuts and changes to the age pension access age.
"If (Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull is serious about doing things differently he would make sure Christian Porter got on with his to-do list today," Labor families and payments spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said in a statement.
Mr Porter said he had been presented with a whole raft of ideas for savings fresh from a department briefing.
He will consider them all before making any decisions.
"I don't want to specify at this earliest stage what they might be," Mr Porter told AAP.
"It's a complicated (portfolio)."
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