Public service pay is the single largest component of overall public expenditure. It follows that if we can manage the public sector pay bill well, we should be able to manage the public finances well. The OECD report devotes considerable attention to value for money in public expenditure, as Senator Bradford stated. It argues that we should move from an input-oriented system to an output-oriented one. This is a very valid point, on which we should concentrate. Consider the health service, for example, into which massive resources have been put since 1997. This is because the coalition parties genuinely wanted to improve the quality of our public health service and were willing to invest money to achieve this. However, the political debate about health was too narrow and always focused on resources – another word for money. There was so much talk about money that we were inclined not to talk about patients. The Government proclaimed how much it was spending as a badge of its commitment to health while the Opposition and media lambasted it for not putting enough into the system. "Underfunding" was the key buzzword.