There is a school of thought that the public will not buy the “National has a hidden agenda” line because John Key appears as a believable kind of guy. I have covered this before, but I think Gordon Campbell has absolutely nailed what is going on in this piece, in the wake of Kategate.

The media do seem to be getting as frustrated as the rest of us about the absence of National Party policy, but what lies behind that absence is what I am really worried about.  As Campbell says

So much for transparency, and fully informed electoral choice. The public is being required to buy a pig in a poke. National is proceeding on a deliberate course to hide from public scrutiny and debate - for as long as it possibly can - what it intends to do on tax, on Kiwisaver and much else besides. When taken together with its intention to re-open the case for FPP, it is a reminder of the party’s fundamentally undemocratic instincts.

I totally agree. Kate Wilkinson’s answer was about what National really want to do, but realising that the public actually do not support much of that they really want to do, they are grudgingly signing up to Labour policies that are successful and popular. 

I have said it before but as John Key does this it is with all the committment of a teenage boy tidying his bedroom, hoping no one notices what he has stuffed in the wardrobe.  Kate Wilkinson’s comments were about what is in the wardrobe, the same National agenda that just like 1990 will be rolled out after they are elected. 

I was there when Lockwood Smith signed his pledge about abolishing tertiary fees.  The tactics are the same- tell the public what they want to hear, hide away what you want to do.