Supermodel Linda Evangelista is reported to have said that “she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than 10,000 pounds”. I have a similar view regarding possible budgetary savings – if it’s less than $10 million, I’ll leave it to the Department of Finance to chase (of course, I’d probably have a different attitude if economists were paid on a commission basis).

Given my attention threshold, I was pretty impressed to read in my morning AFR that “Travelling ex-pollies cost Australia half a billion”. That looked like some money worth grabbing in my next budget review. Sad to say, it was all a subeditor’s error – the actual cost is half a million. Not only that, but the Internet edition fixed it before I could post a link.