The first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election campaign saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese go head-to-head, with the Opposition leader being the audience's pick.
Look back on how the debate unfolded in our blog.
Key events
- 40 per cent of audience members back Albanese in first leaders' debate
- Albanese accuses Morrison of a slur over his position on China and Solomon Islands
- Albanese hits back at Morrison's attacks on Labor's handling of the economy
- Leaders clash on big national reforms
- Albanese and Morrison have clashed on boat turnbacks and offshore detention
- 'We need to restore faith in the political system', Albanese says
- Morrison slams Labors plans for 24/7 nurses
- What issues might feature in the debate?
- This will be a first for Albanese, but not Morrison
- Here's what you need to know about tonight's leaders' debate
Live updates
By Jessica Riga
That's where we'll leave our live coverage for tonight
Thank you for joining us for what was the first leaders' debate of the 2022 federal election campaign!
We'll be back tomorrow with plenty more updates and analysis.
Until then, have a lovely night.
By Jessica Riga
40 per cent of audience members back Albanese in first leaders' debate
Sky News is reporting that, of their 100 undecided voters in tonight's audience, 40 per cent thought Labor leader Anthony Albanese won the first leaders' debate.
35 per cent backed Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
That means 25 people remain undecided.
By Jessica Riga
Here's some analysis from political editor Andrew Probyn
I don't think this will be a night that decides anything.
These nights, especially the first of a campaign... you don't want to self implode, you don't want to be stepping on any policy-laden mines. Both leaders managed to avoid that. Both were really confident in their messaging.
My closing thought is let's have a couple more and on free-to-air where more people can see it.
By Jessica Riga
What happens when the cameras turn off
Our political reporter Stephanie Borys was in the room when the debate was happening. She says it's interesting to watch what happens when the cameras turn off:
We saw Anthony Albanese start to mingle with a couple of those voters and he got a couple of photos.
The Prime Minister went up to Catherine, the mother of 4-year-old Ethan who has autism, and she was explaining that the funding was cut and in his response, he said he would get his team follow up. He went over with a notebook and pen and he was writing down details and had a chat with her and he then went on to take photos with voters, too.
By Jessica Riga
Here's what you thought of the debate
Albanese projected better, he answered the questions put to him. Morrison deflected and did not answer the questions directly.
-Graham Allen
Albanese actually answered the questions asked of him, especially around policy, political trust and reform, while Morrison just repeated the same economic spiel despite it often having no relevance to the question. Deflection does not win a debate.
-demi
Can't believe Anthony Albernese would even mention the Rudd/Gillard years. Nothing but a disaster. Move on, show Australians you have something better, something different to offer.
-Derek
I think Albo won this round... and I'm a Liberal voter.
-Janelle
By Jessica Riga
Some thoughts from the undecided voters
Hi Jessica
Do we get to know how the undecided voters at the debate would vote now?
-Curious
Hey Curious,
We did get to hear from some undecided voters as they left the debate, but it seems they're still very much undecided.
The answers were very mixed, some supporting Morrison, some supporting Albanese.
One person thought "both were good" while another said "neither answered the question on integrity well."
Another person said the Sky News moderator was "unfair" and gave more time to Morrison and cut Albanese off too much.
By Nicholas McElroy
Catch up with live analysis on the first leaders' debate
The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has gone head-to-head with Labor leader Anthony Albanese in Brisbane.
ABC Political editor Andrew Probyn, the Saturday Paper's chief political correspondent Karen Middleton and political reporter Stephanie Borys analyse the debate.
By Jessica Riga
That just about does it. What did you make of that?
That's it for our first leaders' debate of the 2022 federal election campaign.
Was there a stronger speaker in your eyes? Let us know.
By Jessica Riga
And here's Anthony Albanese's final remarks
I think the problem for this government is that they have been in office for almost a decade. They are shooting for a second decade in office and they haven’t shown any plan ... about how you actually grow wages. How you have an economy that works for people, not the other way around.
I want an economy that sees wages being lifted. I want people to enjoy a higher standard of living. I want us to aspire and to be as optimistic as as we should be as a country.
I have two simple philosophies. One is that no one is left behind. That is, the Labor Party will always look after the disadvantaged. That’s why we do things.
We’re the party of opportunity. We’re the party that understands that if we’re going to advance as an economy, then we need to have stronger education. And we see the economy is growing. The opportunity there is there to use clean energy to drive high value manufacturing to drive growth through the economy.
If I’m prime minister, I’ll accept responsibility each and every day. I’ll work hard, and I’ll accept responsibility, and not always seek to blame someone else.
By Jessica Riga
Here's Scott Morrison's closing statement
This election is a choice and these processes are important to help people make their choice. But fundamentally, I really believe this election is all about the economy that you, and your family, and your communities will live in for the next 10 years.
It will determine your economic opportunities, your job, your wages, all of these things and services can Australia can afford to deliver the essential services that you rely on.
It all starts with managing a strong economy. Our government has proven that with a strong economic plan that has been delivering unemployment falling to 4% ,a triple A credit rating, the biggest budget turnaround seen in 70 years, the future – we’re heading in the right direction.
Now is not the time to turn back. So I thank you for your question and I look forward to the opportunities Australia has, as we seize them, with the economic plan that we know is working, and will continue to work for you and your family, and the essential services you rely on.
By Jessica Riga
That's it for questions
Or so it seems!
A quick question about striking up a deal with independents was thrown at Albanese and Morrison.
(For reference, both party leaders have said they won't form government with independents.)
Scott Morrison said Labor will “of course” make a deal with the Greens, which Albanese called "nonsense".
Let's get into closing statements.
By Jessica Riga
How will we solve the diminishing support for democracy?
We have such a proud history in this country, in terms of women’s participation in the political system... we need to do much better. We need to engage with young people, we need to engage on issues that involve them because they are our future.
And I know that young people are particularly concerned about issues like climate change, making sure that the world parrot is one that’s at least as pristine as the one that’s there at the moment. So I think it’s a matter of us reaching out, engaging, working out new ways of participation, as well in the political process.
Meanwhile, Scott Morrison has blamed social media and says big tech companies need to take responsibility.
The way people engage on social media I think is incredibly dangerous.
It has its great advantages. Families stay connected in ways that we never could before. But at the same time what has happened with social media in our political debate over the last 10 years, it makes me terribly sad. And I think young people have been most affected by that – there are things that people would never say to each other. But they will write it in a comment and hurtful and it’s destructive.
By Jessica Riga
Albanese points to a federal ICAC to help restore voters faith in politics
Here's Anthony Albanese's reply to how his government would restore faith in the system.
Unfortunately, you're right on the money, Claire.
There's so much disillusionment with our political system. That's one of the reasons we need a strong anti-corruption commission to restore that faith.
But we need to do more than that, as well.
We will do different things but I think it’s also important to restore faith in politics... and I want to unite the country. I want to not be a prime minister who’s always looking for the wedge always looking for the division. Because if we’re going to move forward as a country, we need to work out our common interests.
I think it’s important to restore faith in politics is the how - and I want to unite the country, because if we’re going to move forward as a country, we need to work out our common interests ... we need to look for areas of agreement, areas of consensus, areas in which the country can be united going forward instead of the constant argy bargy which does seem to dominate a lot of our politics and I think you’re right, it’s putting people off.
By Nicholas McElroy
Albanese accuses Morrison of a slur over his position on China and Solomon Islands
Mr Morrison had just finished saying the security pact had been signed "because China is seeking to interfere in the pacific."
He said he had been accused of being a racist over his position on the issue by his political opponents.
Mr Morrison then said to Mr Albanese: "Why would you take China's side?"
Mr Albanese was not happy with this question.
"That's an outrageous slur from the prime minister — national security shouldn't be the subject of that sort of slur," Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese then said Australia has known since WWII how much of a strategic position Solomon Islands hold in the pacific.
"This is a pacific stuff up, not step up," he said.
"We should have been on top of this issue."
By Jessica Riga
We're coming up to our final questions
This question comes from Claire: The latest polling statistic shows voters have an all-time low level of faith in the integrity of both major party politicans. What are you going to do to restore their trust?
Here's Morrison, he launches straight into the economy:
Our economic plan is about helping Australians realise their big aspirations in life, have their kids, to raise them, to give them a good education, to buy a home, to save for their retirement, to run a business and to have choices.
Our economic plan is delivering that. Our economy now is one of the strongest in the world of the advanced world and that’s giving Australians opportunities every single day. And what I’ve learned from my years in politics, is that unless you can run a strong economy and manage money, maintain the triple A credit rating, change the economy moving forward, then your aspirations for so many of these other issues can’t be achieved.
And that’s why this election is very much about who can run the economy and who can manage money. And following through on those plans, doing what we said we would do, ensuring we said we would get more Australians in their own homes.
By Jessica Riga
Clashes over emergency funding
We've heard a question on the flood response.
Albanese starts us off:
We have been critical of the Emergency Response Fund – that was created with our support – but it was created with the idea that $200 million would be spent every year, some of it on recovery, some of it on mitigation, on planning, [on bushfire and flood preparedness]. And yet it just stayed there. It stayed there as if it was a term deposit and it’s grown now to $4.8bn.
And here's Morrison's reply:
One of the things we want to see is greater transparency on the management of fuel loads, not just in the national parks, but in the forestry estates and the other areas where fuel loads build up. And when those fuel loads burn up, we know what happens. But we don’t have any transparency at the moment from the state about how those fuel loads are being managed.
By Jessica Riga
Here's a question on JobKeeper
We're hearing from Daniel who has a question on small business owners. "A lot of business owners were left out in the cold during the pandemic. We couldn't access JobKeeper because we weren't 'employees'. Moving forward, what is your plans to help small businesses?"
Here's Morrison:
We’ve cut taxes for small business by 25%. Second of all, we’ve provided the instant asset write off and what that means is you if you go and spend on a new piece of plant and equipment or coffee machine, a fridge or a new machine, in your tool kit, then you can write that off 100%.
And so we’ve lowered taxes for small businesses because it is tough. One of the key things that small businesses have to deal with is their cash flow. And in this budget, we provided 100% tax deduction for those who were training [people], but also on the investments you have to make.
And here's Albanese:
We think that in terms of taking pressure off your small business, what we need to do is to have a plan as well to lift wages throughout the economy.
One of the things that’s happening is that if people haven’t got enough money to spend, if they’re struggling to get by, they can’t afford to go to the local cafe, they cut back. And that’s one of the things that we’re seeing that’s holding back our economy.
By Nicholas McElroy
Here's more on the exchange between Morrison and Albanese on boat turnbacks
Morrison: So when you were deputy prime minister, why didn't you support boat turnbacks them?
Albanese: You weren't proposing that then...
Morrison: We were, I'm sorry it was our policy, turnbacks were our policy before the 2013 election, I was the shadow immigration minister, I designed the policy. You were on the national security committee so why did you not support turnbacks?
Albanese: I was on the NSC, we had established offshore processing ... in 2013, when I became deputy PM, that was the first step.
Morrison: So you were going to do turnbacks.
Albanese: No ... no that's right. But why is it Scott that you're always looking for division?
Morrison: No I'm looking for accuracy and the truth.
Albanese: The truth is we support boat turnbacks.
By Jessica Riga
Albanese hits back at Morrison's attacks on Labor's handling of the economy
Labor does the big things. We do the big reforms. We just went through three decades of economic growth because of the Hawke/Keating reforms which happened. We went through the GFC better than just about any other economy because of the actions of the Rudd/Gillard government.
We while we were doing it were did the NDIS, Paid Parental Leave.
This government is just treading water.
By Jessica Riga
'NDIS is a proud Labor reform that we will fix', Albanese says
Anthony Albanese says Ethan's story (Catherine's son) isn't an isolated one and that the "NDIS is proud Labor reform that we will fix”.
If we’re sensible about this, and get it right, one of the things about the NDIS is that it is certainly isn’t welfare. All of the analysis shows, if you allow everyone to participate in society, you will get better outcomes, obviously better social outcomes, but you’ll also get better economic outcomes as well.
But before we moved onto the next question, Morrison interjected to say "it’s always the Liberals who have to work out how to pay for these things."
And that’s what we’ve done over the last eight years. Now I make this point very importantly, because I said at the start, that this election is really about the economy.
