KEY POINTS:
Which of these two statements is correct? National does not believe in compulsory employer contributions to KiwiSaver. National does believe in compulsory employer contributions to KiwiSaver.
The answer? Who knows.
Who knows what National really thinks when the party leadership makes reassuring noises about keeping KiwiSaver in pretty much its current form, but its industrial relations spokeswoman, Kate Wilkinson, effectively declares National will remove one of the scheme's central pillars.
Doubts about National's commitment to the Government-backed savings plan will linger despite John Key saying National's version of the scheme will be similar to Labour's.
Labour will exploit those doubts to try to persuade the more than 600,000 New Zealanders signed up to KiwiSaver that the scheme's entitlements are under threat if National wins power, that Key's assurances are just electoral pragmatism and that National will cut the Government contribution so it can afford to give bigger tax cuts.
Labour will say that Wilkinson's statement that National is not a party of compulsion is a more accurate indicator of National's real commitment to the scheme - or lack of it - and therefore evidence of Labour's claim that what National says and what National really thinks are two very different things.
Wilkinson, who was marked out early for promotion from the current crop of first-term National MPs, has blotted her copybook.
Her statement about National getting rid of compulsion - made at a breakfast forum - was gone by lunchtime.
Once Labour's chief attack dogs, Michael Cullen and Trevor Mallard, picked up the scent of contradiction in National's ranks, a press statement was hurriedly issued in Wilkinson's name saying she had been wrong but had "misinterpreted" a question from the floor.
Quite how she could have misinterpreted what others present say was a straightforward question is rather puzzling coming from someone who has so far proved to be a careful, if unflamboyant operator.
Regardless, Wilkinson's loose lips forced National to declare its position far earlier than had been intended. But if this was an accident, it was an accident waiting to happen.
The more obvious it appears that National is heading into Government and the longer it holds out on clarifying its stance on major policy matters, the more not-so-experienced MPs like Wilkinson are going to come under pressure at such meetings to spell out what the party would do differently.
National has managed to hold off unveiling policies because Labour has been dominating the headlines. But the policy spotlight was always going to focus on National at some point.
With the Budget out of the way and Labour's tax plan on the table, the onus has shifted to National to respond in kind rather than saying all will be revealed closer to the election.
Key appears to be feeling that pressure as evidenced by his pre-Budget talk of National offering a $50 a week tax cut. He clearly felt National had to give voters at least some rough idea of what it will be promising.
But as the party is holding back releasing its tax plan until the formal campaign, Key is going to have to find other things to talk about in the interim.
Otherwise there is a vacuum. It is a vacuum which Labour will fill happily and quickly - as it did yesterday.
