We’re now past the halfway mark when it comes to election debates, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton faced off in their third (of four) scheduled meetings on Tuesday night.
Kicking off on the first day of early voting, the latest leaders’ debate of the 2025 federal election campaign took place at the Channel Nine studios, moderated by A Current Affair host Ally Langdon.
It also came a day after both candidates paused their campaigns as a mark of respect following the death of Pope Francis.
Questions were chosen by a panel of journalists — 2GB radio’s Deb Knight, The Australian Financial Review‘s Phil Coorey, and 9News’ chief political editor Charles Croucher — and viewers reckon this was most heated one yet.
Didn’t get a chance to tune in? Here’s everything you need to know about what went down.
1) Dishing on the “biggest lies”
In a question bound to stir up some reactions, the leaders were asked about the “biggest lie” told about them during the campaign. And yeah, it veered from policy to personal jabs pretty quick.
Dutton pinpointed Labor’s “scare campaign” that he would gut Medicare as well as historical claims about Liberal budget cuts.
He added Albanese “couldn’t lie straight in bed”, to which Albanese clapped back: “You can go to abuse – that’s just a sign of desperation, frankly.”
In another instance, Albanese pointed to unanswered questions about the hefty price tag attached to the Coalition’s proposed nuclear reactions, and addressed claims he is perceived as a “weak” leader.
“Kindness isn’t weakness. Kindness is something that I was raised with. I’ve managed to be firm about Australia’s position,” he said, as reported by SBS News.
2) No budging on nuclear
Both leaders held firm on their stance when it comes to nuclear power, signalling we could be in for some heated disagreements ahead, regardless of who wins the upcoming election.
“We are committed to nuclear not because it’s politically popular,” Dutton explained, per ABC News. “I haven’t committed to nuclear energy for votes. I committed to it because it’s in the best interests of our country.”
In response, Albanese stated nuclear power is a “friendless policy” that “doesn’t stand up”.
“If nuclear stacked up, there’d be a queue of people saying, ‘we think this is a good idea, we’re prepare to invest our own dollars’. Instead, taxpayers are going to pay for it… It is a recipe to take us backwards,” he said.
3) The Trump equation
With everything that’s been going down globally, the question of how the leaders would deal with US President Donald Trump and other foreign leaders was always going to come up.
In the last debate, Dutton admitted he’d never met Trump, but this time around, he opted to highlight his previous interactions with the US government. He stressed that he’d worked with the Obama and Trump administrations in his time as senior minister. He also took a jab at Albanese’s negotiation efforts, stating he “can’t even get a phone call”.
When asked about voters who consider him a lightweight version of Trump, Dutton claimed this connection came from “lies” and “mudslinging” from Labor, as reported by news.com.au.
“I believe that I’ve got the experience to bring to this job, my biggest influence in my political life was John Howard and Peter Costello. I worked as assistant treasurer, and I have taken inspiration from them both in terms of how to keep our economy strong and how to keep our country safe,” he said.
In response, Albanese dismissed the idea that Dutton could negotiate tariffs exemptions for Australia as “complete nonsense”. He pointed out almost every country in the world, including US allies, have been slapped with a tariff of some kind.
4) On the same page with the social media ban
Despite their varying views on a number of other issues, Albanese and Dutton did find some common ground in their approach with the social media ban for under-16s in Australia.
Both pledged their support for legislation that will restrict access to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X.
Albanese stated the government “won’t budge” on the issue, adding the ban is “world leading”.
“There’s no question in my mind that in the lead-up to December, when it comes into force, you will see major pressure being placed by some of the social media giants,” he said, per Reuters.
Dutton said the major parties were on a “unity ticket” on the issue and added multinational tech giants “just see our kids as a commodity, as a profit line online”.
“We have worked really hard to hold those companies to account, to provide a safer place online and to make sure the big media companies treat our kids with respect according to the law, and it is not this lawless zoo,” he said.
5) Budget and spending plans
With budget forecasts indicating it could be a decade before Australia is next back in the black AKA not in a budget deficit, both leaders were pressed on their views regarding economic management.
Albanese pointed to Labor’s track record, highlighting its last two surpluses, while Dutton claimed these were achieved due to rising iron ore prices and commodity taxes, lashing Labor for increased spending. But he stopped short of addressing specifics on how Coalition would cut spending.
“We will look at the budget. We’ll see where the government’s wasting money. I think every Australians look at their own budgets now, and if they’re having to tighten their belts, so too should the federal government,” he stated.
6) Addressing the housing crisis
When addressing the hot mess that is Australia’s property market, both leaders interestingly said they have no plans to change either negative gearing or the capital gains tax discount if elected.
Albanese said his government was concentrating on supply, confirming “we won’t be making the changes you suggest [to negative gearing or CGT], and we haven’t done so”.
Dutton even talked about how Coalition’s policy might be able to help young people like his son Harry, who was wheeled out on the campaign recently to talk about how he’s “saving like mad” to buy a property. According to Dutton, he would encourage his son to draw down on his super, under the Coalition’s housing policy.
“I think if we had this policy in place, say five years ago, there would have been the option for young Australians to be in home ownership territory, and if they did that, their net position today would be hundreds of thousands of dollars better off,” he said.
So where do we go from here? Well, with nothing too new coming out of this one in terms of policy, surely it’s not lost on them that there’s just two weeks and one last election debate to get their final say. Could we be in for a spicy last debate?? (Fingers crossed)
If you wanna catch up on what went down before this, you can check out the key takeaways from the first debate HERE and second debate HERE.
And if you’d like to see where the major parties stand on key issues, you can check out their policies HERE.
Lead image: AAP Photos
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