"We're supporting 2.1 million people," the Labour social media posts boasted.
It then transpired the first round of payments only went to 1.3 million people.
That might increase once various things happened with tax returns and databases and other computations, but would it hit the 2.1 million mark? Who can say?
Inland Revenue couldn't say. It had delivered the 2.1 million estimate with a caveat that it had no idea how accurate the estimate was.
Nor could Inland Revenue estimate how many people were getting it who were ineligible for it, despite Revenue Minister David Parker's estimate that it was about one per cent. It remains unclear whether that was 1 per cent of 2.1 million or of 1.3 million.
Nonetheless, Labour was not rushing to change its advertising to the more accurate "We might one day be supporting 2.1 million people but we can't be sure." Instead it sent out an email to supporters saying it had just given $116 to 2.1 million - and now would people mind giving Labour $10 in a donation for its generosity.
The Government's defence was it was still more people than would be getting it if they had been asked to apply for it. Instead, people were being asked to pay it back out of the good of their own hearts.
Inland Revenue are now simultaneously engaged in hunting down more people to give money to, and processing money being paid back.
By this stage, it was like watching octopuses playing Twister.
Revenue Minister David Parker came in to clear it all up, due to the fortuitous international absences of both PM Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Parker was perhaps the best choice. He dealt with it by using his most soporific tone and offering up lengthy dry, complicated explanations of how tax datasets work.
By the time he was done, people still didn't know the answers but had at least had a refreshing nap.
More lively fare was happening in Health Minister Andrew Little's corner. Little was being asked "is it you, or is it me?" after the Nurses Organisation took umbrage at involving Shortland Street in attempts to recruit more nurses.
The union claimed a soap opera did not depict what real nursing life was life, and better immigration settings would be better.
Little's probably quite accurate rationale was that young people on the precipice of making career decisions were watching Shortland Street rather than reading immigration policy.
The main protagonists of politics were not around to enjoy all of this: the PM and a happy troupe of MPs were in Samoa to mark the 60th anniversary of the friendship treaty - and the reopening of Samoa's borders.
Act leader David Seymour was deploying shameless cunning to ensure he was noticed.
He escaped having to wear the team uniform, and in almost all photos – from when the plane landed to when it took off - Seymour was standing or sitting directly behind Ardern to ensure he was in shot.
There were also reports that when he spotted Ardern quietly leaving a venue to meet the media pack, he scuttled out too to piggyback and give his own stand-up straight after.
Poor old Christopher Luxon was being mercilessly mocked on social media as photos of him circulated looking a bit overcooked in the heat.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's international borders had been fully open for two days and NZ First leader Winston Peters was on Twitter doing his utmost to entice international tourists to come over.
He issued a tweet with his entry for a Tourism NZ campaign: "On the day of our borders opening to the world, our supposed showpiece [Auckland] has a main street that's rife with homelessness, crime, violence, blocked up roads, and boarded up shops."
Brace for the onslaught, New Zealand.
