So there is one more leaders’ debate to go (now that no one wants to annoy any media company, every media company gets their own debate, which makes us all the losers) which will be held by Seven and is in the final week of the campaign.

Tomorrow, day 26 of this never ending campaign, will see a return to normal campaigning from both camps, with today pretty much a write-off.

You can see how the campaign is narrowing. Peter Dutton – cost of living and the prime minister is a liar, and Anthony Albanese – Dutton’s temperament isn’t fit for the job, and the Coalition will cut to pay for it’s policies.

On that last point, Dutton still not saying how he will pay for anything – and claiming that the Coalition will have to go through the budget ‘line by line’ if in government, will just give anyone with any Auspol memory flashes of 2014. Combined with Dutton losing his cool a little early on in the debate, that’s plenty for Labor to run off with. Meanwhile, Dutton will be on a mission. Bringing Harry on the campaign hasn’t worked, visiting scores of fuel stations may not have worked, but hammering the cost of living line? Well, it’s an easy sell to the undecided voter.

Voting is now open and there are predictions about 50% of voters will cast their ballot before 3 May, so we are all about to get a better idea of where the nation is really going, very soon.

And as one reader pointed out, the Crumpets of Tin Foil Hats want the Chinese to pay off Australia’s debt. So now we all know one policy. Maybe the Chinese can also buy me a pony.

Thanks for joining us tonight – we will be back with you tomorrow for a proper day of campaigning. Probably with a headache after three glasses of New Zealand’s cheapest Pinot Noir. But honestly – it was absolutely necessary.

Until then, take care of you. Ax

According to the panel, the winner is…

Phil Coorey: Anthony Albanese

Deb Knight: Peter Dutton

Charles Croucher: Peter Dutton

There are more ads – and David Koch is doing insurance ads now?

I have seen the Crumpets of Tin Foil Hats ad about eleventy billion times now, and still can’t tell you the leaders’ name, or the policies they are banging on about.

First there is an attempt to create some spiciness from within the debate, which is one of the major issues with televised debates – they are so ordered and artificial and the leaders are so overly prepared, there is no real human emotion.

It’s not Nerang High vs Brisbane Boys College, I’ll tell you that much.

And on this never ending talking point:

And maybe my local bottle shop.

The Nine Panel of Deb Knight, Charles Croucher and Phil Coorey are going to declare a winner to the debate.

We wait.

It is talking points to wrap it up.

What did we learn there?

Not a lot. Peter Dutton and the Coalition’s research has obviously shown that calling Albanese a liar is a cut through line, along with focusing on building kids’ futures. He is trying to walk the line between being a tough guy and also one who has multiple dimensions.

Anthony Albanese has narrowed his message down to ‘the Coalition will have to cut to meet their promises’ which gives you an insight into Labor’s research.

There was no Medicare card in this debate, so Albanese wanted to avoid that trap (GP visits won’t be free for a lot of people even if Labor wins) and Dutton wants you to think of the future, not the past.

Interestingly, Dutton has again pointed to his belief that the polling is wrong and he could pull off a surprise on 3 May. Which would take quite a bit of polling to be wrong. The trend hasn’t been with the Coalition since the election campaign began and Dutton remains the more unpopular leader.

But who knows where the independent and minor party voters will go with their preferences. The one thing the major parties can bank on, is not knowing where the voters they have lost are going to put their number two and three preferences – and that is worrying both major party campaigns.

Would you do a deal with minor parties?

Albanese: No

Dutton: Not with the Greens, but with the independents.

Dutton: You won’t form a government with the Greens.

Albanese: No

Four year terms?

Both yes. But no referendum.

First legislation:

Albanese: Cuts to student debt

Dutton: Talking points

Three things you admire about Dutton:

Albanese: “Three?”

He bats way above his average with with Kirilly, he has a terrific family. He clearly cares about them, and that’s a terrific thing. Longevity in politics, he’s been working in parliament for basically the same amount of time, almost both been there for more than 20 years. That’s an achievement. And Peter in that time as well, has had a tough seat that he’s contested consistently over a long period of time.

Three things you like about Albanese:

Dutton:

Well, I’ll start with family as well, and I admire the Prime Minister’s fathership, and Nathan’s a great young bloke. And similarly, with with Jody, I’ve come to know Jody and meet her at different events, and have a great deal of respect for them both, and I wish them well we’re both our way as well and truly the case.

I again acknowledge the Prime Minister’s support of Aukus from opposition, and it wasn’t an easy outcome, as he pointed out, he was satisfied that nuclear energy was safe, but he got that through the caucus, which was a difficult thing, and Aukus when we negotiated it, it was about underpinning our security for the next century.

And that’s three isn’t it?

They agree that they are both ‘punching above our weight’ with their partners.

The Coalition’s proposal on nuclear power started out as a troll that has spectacularly backfired.

In the early debates on climate change, some on the right who were virulently against even the idea that the earth might be getting warmer, thought that all those who were concerned about climate change were crazy environmental lefties.

The troll was that such people were against nuclear power but if Australia’s power generation was switched from fossil fuel to nuclear then carbon emissions would go down. By suggesting nuclear they could show what hypocrites those environmentalists were.

For some reason, elements from within the coalition believed their own trolling. It was decided that it would be a brilliant political and strategic move if they went to the election with a proposal to build seven nuclear reactors. When the coalition announced the policy, the glee within the Labor party was obvious.

Given the policy offering we have seen so far from the coalition, this was the policy that they put the most work into. It is also a policy that is (unsurprisingly) deeply unpopular with the pubic. So unpopular that the coalition has largely stopped talking about it during the campaign.

Compounding these problems, the coalition was largely preparing for a debate around the safety of nuclear power. They were expecting a fight about Blinky the Simpson’s three eyed fish.

You could see Dutton’s frustration when during the debate he said, “When the Prime Minister sneakily says to an audience when he thinks he’s not being watched nuclear is unsafe,” but the PM and Labor haven’t been talking about nuclear safety. Rather they’ve been talking about its economics.

This is because nuclear power is the most expensive form of power. Adding nuclear will push up power prices and/or cost the budget a fortune. It will also be decades before we get any power from the first reactor. This means running old and increasingly unreliable coal fired power stations for longer and this will come at significant cost. Either that or having to build lots of new gas fired power stations, also very costly.

What started out as trolling people who were concerned about climate change has ended up as stone weighing the coalition’s campaign down.

Host:

“I just want to say there that I’m not sure that anyone at home is feeling that like either of you are being fiscally responsible at the moment, and we’re really concerned about the level of debt we’re going to be leaving our grandkids.”

Well actually they should not be worried at all. Remember that even though we have a lot more govt debt than we did back when Peter Costello was treasury, the interest rate the government pays when it borrows money is lower now.

All investors around the world, think Australia’s debt levels are not only manageable but less risky than they were 20 years ago when there was no debt!

Peter Dutton talking about export prices being higher than expected was something the ALP was lucky with… well actually it happens all the time! As Matt showed the budget always is conservative on these forecasts