Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been declared the winner of the first leaders’ debate of the 2025 election, comfortably beating Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in a town hall that focused heavily on cost of living and left many undecided.
The debate revealed little of note on policy but Dutton opened the door to extending his promised fuel excise cuts in an opening leaders’ debate of the election focused heavily on cost of living.
At the end of the night, of the 100 voters at the Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum, 44 went for the prime minister, 35 for the opposition leader and 21 remained undecided.
AS IT HAPPENED: Albanese and Dutton go head-to-head
Dutton and Albanese traded blows tonight on education, housing, health and migration, mostly viewed through the lens of how their policies would impact families’ bottom lines.
Questions returned several times to the major parties’ headline cost of living measures: Labor’s smaller but permanent tax cut and the Coalition’s larger but temporary cut to fuel excise.
A common theme from audience members was why neither party would commit to both tax cuts. Of course, neither man budged.
Albanese said his government didn’t want to just provide temporary relief while Dutton said he didn’t want to “bake in” long-term spending.
But truck driver Ian seemingly had more luck convincing Dutton to extend the one-year 25¢ fuel tax cut he’s promised if elected to three or more years.
“Now my argument is that there are many ways in which we can provide support, including tax cuts, and we would reassess where we are as an economy, as a people, as a nation, in 12 months’ time, and if we needed to extend it, then we could do that,” Dutton said.
While Labor and the Coalition have matched each other in many policy areas in the early stages of the election campaign, the leaders kicked off the debate with very different rhetoric.
Albanese encouraged viewers to “look forward and seize the opportunities and build Australia’s future” while Dutton said Australians had “gone backwards” during a “tough three years” under Labor.
Response to Trump’s tariffs
Even at a time of immense global uncertainty, international affairs were touched on only briefly in the form of Donald Trump’s tariffs and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Albanese pledged to keep negotiating with the US leader, insisting Australia was “prepared” for the tariffs and “no country is better positioned to take advantage of the trade opportunities”. Dutton plugged the Turnbull government’s success in gaining an exemption from steel and aluminum tariffs and said if he was prime minister he would have the strength to “stand up against bullies”.
Questioned on Australia’s response to the war in Gaza, Albanese repeated his government’s consistent lines about wanting a ceasefire, all hostages released and a two-state solution. Dutton condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack and pivoted quickly to condemning “un-Australian” fire bombings and attacks on individuals closer to home.
‘Confronting moment’ in audience
Many of the most interesting moments of the night came from the audience rather than the well-coached politicians they were questioning.
Hands went up across the room when Sky News host Kieran Gilbert “who’s doing it pretty tough, who’s finding it hard to get by?”
Albanese pointed the finger at Dutton for blocking his cost of living measures.
“We understand cost of living pressures. That’s why we’ve introduced, as well, energy rebates, all of these measures. We’ve done cheaper childcare,” he said.
“But all of them have been opposed by the Coalition.”
Dutton said the number of hands up in the audience was a “confronting scene”.
“People who are working hard, people who have done everything they can in their own budgets to cut back on expenses and just to try and make things bounce at the end of each week or the end of each fortnight or month,” Dutton said.
“I think it’s reflective of the broader population in Australia at the moment, and it’s certainly similar to many of the conversations we’ve had as we’ve moved around the country.
“I think we should be doing everything we can to provide support, but we need to do it in a way that is not inflationary.”
Janine, 74, also tugged at heartstrings with a question about greater restrictions on foreigners buying Australian land and housing.
“I didn’t come from money at all. I came from average family. You work hard, you save, you buy your home, you have your children, and you move on. OK,” she said.
“My future, well, not worried about it, [but] my children’s future and my grandchildren’s future, I worry about.”
Both leaders spent time engaging with the grandmother before declaring they have the same policy of a two-year ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings.
Prior preparation prevents poor performance
Both leaders managed to get off a couple of reasonably sharp lines that may or may not have been rehearsed beforehand.
After pressing Dutton repeatedly on what he would cut to pay for his $600 billion nuclear policy, Albanese claimed “the only gas policy that the coalition have is the gaslighting of the Australian public”.
And Dutton came ready to hit back at Albanese’s constant use of a Medicare card on the campaign trail to show Labor’s support for the program, when an audience member complained about rising gap costs for doctor visits.
“Yours is the story of literally hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians as well,” he said, after confirming she needed more than just a Medicare card to pay for an appointment.
“And I’ve heard the prime minister run this stunt before with ‘you only need your Medicare card’.
“It’s not true. Bulk billing rates have reduced under this government, and that’s the reality.”
Albanese hit back, attacking Dutton for a freeze on the Medicare rebate when he was health minister, which was first announced under Labor prime minister Julia Gillard but extended under the Coalition.
Dutton has matched Labor’s $8.5 billion push to dramatically increase access to bulk-billing.
Lightning round
The questioning wrapped up with both leaders responding to a quickfire round of questions. Dutton promised not to make changes to work-from-home provisions, following a dramatic backdown this week on a plan to do just that for public servants.
Albanese promised not to legislate an Indigenous Voice to parliament, after his failure to get the referendum over the line hurt him politically.
Asked whether he would do a deal with the Greens, Albanese said “there’ll be no deals with the Greens by me after the election, and I’m aiming for majority government”.
Despite this, Dutton closed by telling voters they don’t need a “Labor-Greens minority government” after the election.
Albanese claimed Dutton would deliver cuts just as the previous Liberal government did.
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