Australian news and politics recap: Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor face off in tetchy treasurers’ debate
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Key Events
Dutton falls short of landing his key message
The Nightly’s Caitlyn Rintoul was at the first Federal election debate.
She writes: Peter Dutton was stern and composed in the first leaders’ debate but he appeared to fall short of convincing voters in the room the Coalition is the best economic manager.
In a debate that rarely sparked, the two leaders wrestled themselves to a lacklustre draw. Mr Dutton tried to embody the economic strongman image that past Liberal leaders have worn so convincingly. But his performance, while solid in parts, didn’t quite land with the same impact.
Much like their campaigns, it was hard to pull the two leaders apart. They’ve been engaged in a tit-for-tat race on policy announcements — from Medicare last month, to the Port of Darwin on Friday, and mental health on Tuesday.
The debate was just another battleground it will be hard to differentiate the two on.
While Mr Dutton was a steady performer, he lacked some of the sharp attacks Anthony Albanese attempted more than once.
He tried to open with charm and maintained a polite tone for much of the night, but didn’t quite nail the same effort Mr Albanese did to personalise his response to questions from the audience.
Still, by scrapping his work-from-home policy the day before, Mr Dutton dodged some of the punches Mr Albanese might otherwise have landed — though the Prime Minister tried anyway.
Albanese wins debate with ‘confident’ and ‘arrogant’ performance
The Nightly’s Ellen Ransley was at the first Federal election debate.
She writes: Anthony Albanese won the night but he only did so based on a number of cut-through moments in an otherwise status-quo performance that he failed to land the knockout blow he needed to harden soft voters.
He may have won the People’s Forum, but one-in-five of the 100 voters remain unconvinced he’s the right man to be Prime Minister come May 3.
For the most part he played it safe, whipping out his favourite prop - his Medicare card - as he butted heads with Peter Dutton over bulk-billing, and talked up Labor’s first term agenda.
He was focused, disciplined and on-message, delivering well-polished campaign lines in a gaffe-free delivery, but he struggled to keep up with Dutton on topics like migration and energy.
Albanese was polished, but was described by some in the room as a “smart arse” and “arrogant”.
Others described him as “confident”, a positive quality they told The Nightly outside the venue.
The more personable approach he took to questioners, like walking towards audience members as he answered their question and asking them details about their lives to inform his answer, also cut through.
