The best headline the government got out of the $12 billion spend up, which by the way wasn’t a $12 billion spend up, but back to that in a moment.

But the best headline the government could have got, was the one that said roading is the winner.

In that headline or general sentiment is the cleverness of the politics, and don’t for a moment think this isn't about re-election. The fact this came 24 hours after the announcement of the date is no coincidence The fact that it's only $8 billion spent and another $4 billion is being held back is no coincidence.

But the best politics of all is the roading angle. If the package had been filled with light rail, cycleways, and the usual ideological nonsense this government have become famous for then it would not have under cut the opposition the way it partially has. 

The criticism of this government, especially given their association with the Greens is they are anti-road, and they are. But given they want to be re-elected, they have decided for now, they aren't.

 And they are playing to a simple truth, we love roads. There is a reason we buy more cars every year. There is a reason, despite all the propaganda and hot air around trains, bikes, and buses we haven't got out of our cars. They have for political purposes at last recognised that.

The stark realisation, of course, is that despite $8 billion being laid out, it doesn’t buy a lot, infrastructure is expensive.

Delivery will be their next issue, and politics plays a part here as well.

What will be built before you vote? Nothing. This is at least five years plus away, that means even if they got a second term, it still wouldn't be built. So they're selling you a concept.

Further, this government's record on delivery is abysmal; dare I raise Kiwibuild?

And that’s before you come up against the cold, hard ongoing reality that we don't have enough workers to build all this stuff and migration is slowing, at least in part, because the economy has slowed at least in part because of the government, that now needs the workers.

A lot of people have argued this is overdue, and it is. But it's overdue in part because this is the government that stopped all the progress of the previous lot, they've put it on hold for the past two years. This is stuff that was already underway and on the books.

So, in essence, they're carrying on where National left off. But as I say that’s politics, that's what smart politicians do.

The announcement got the anti-roads monkey off their back, they’ve got money left over for bribery at a later date, and we actually get a bunch of stuff that will actually help the country grow.

So not a bad day at the re-election office.