Malcolm Turnbull has called on business and the states to embrace a "new dialogue on economic reform" in pursuit of meaningful change based on a "full and genuine buy-in".
And he has also signalled increased competition in service delivery which would apply equally to publicly distributed health and other human services.
Just weeks from his first meeting as Prime Minister of the Council of Australian Governments, Mr Turnbull used a speech on Wednesday night to the powerful business lobby, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to assert that his government wants to get taxes down as a proportion fo the economy, but not if it harms growth.
"The challenge that we face," his speech notes say, " is that expenditure as a percentage of GDP remains at a high level."
"This doesn't mean we should just go out and slash and burn, cutting individual spending programs irrespective of their benefit to the community," he was to tell the economically "dry" business organisation at its end-of-year dinner.
The speech came the evening before he was preparing to put his money where his mouth is in relation to one of the most under-performing areas of public need as well as commonwealth-state overlap - mental health spending.
Ahead of what is being billed as one of the more fundamental shake-ups of the beleaguered mental heath sector in years, it has emerged that Canberra will hand some $350 million in funding to 31 regional offices in the primary health care sector, where mental health professionals say it can be used to greatest effect.
In his comments to the business group, Mr Turnbull stressed the importance of efficiency in funding the social safety net, and the need to "fund those services by raising taxes in a way that minimises distortions, providing incentives for people to work, save and invest".
In what was certain to please the small government supporters of industry, he said simply raising taxes was no way to get the budget deficit down because it would not create the "dynamic 21st century economy".
Rather, policy settings should be designed to improve growth and the quality of life for consumers.
"We need to make sure that government gets the best value for the taxpayers' dollar - that we spend and invest taxpayer funds wisely."
The business speech is hardly Mr Turnbull's last chance for messaging in 2015, even as others begin their summer wind-downs.
As well as a COAG meeting in which he hopes to usher in this new level of cooperation, the federal government will also release its keenly anticipated mid-year economic and fiscal outlook document next month, and a much hyped "innovation statement".
But in Federal Parliament's penultimate sitting week, the opposition continued its critique of the new Prime Minister as "all talk and no action".
