It’s all about the roads at the moment, which I am pretty thrilled about.

There have been some things I haven’t been that thrilled about. For instance, I was up in Hawke’s Bay recently talking to local bodies about some roading initiatives I felt were less than helpful, such as plonking large flower planters on road lanes. But more about that later.

The big deal has been the release of NZTA Waka Kotahi’s National Land Transport Programme 2024-2027 which aims to future-proof our roading network and boost productivity. The investment of $32.9b is the largest of any NLTP. Arguably money should have been spent sooner and we’ll still be behind the eight ball.