John Key is probably right that more people care about limits on how many snapper they can catch than about the real Fish in the Room, the changes to the Government Communications Security Bureau law. Catch limits are easy to visualise: nine fish today, down to three tomorrow.
Expanding the potential for electronic spying is not only invisible, those awkward initials GCSB hardly roll off the snapper-hungry tongue.
The Prime Minister would be wise, though, not to become too fixated on rolling opinion polls of what people say they find important. If more people tick snapper than spying as a concern, it does not mean spying on their emails is unimportant.
Mr Key would be the first to say the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement forming a free-trade zone around much of the ocean is vital to New Zealanders' futures. But ask the public in an opinion poll if it resonates, and it would be in the margin of error.
