A little over a month from now, the edge-of-your-seat excitement (we're all on the edge of our seats, yes?) will be over and a new (or not so new) government will be beginning its search for more answers to public spending reform.

But in many ways, they shouldn't need to. When looked at nationally, significant reform is happening. We just – to repeat the age-old complaint about local government – aren't that good at telling the story.