Thread by @PRGuy17

#LeadersDebate — a thread for those who can't or won't watch. Grab a drink, some snacks, get comfortable...

Okay, here we go, Channel 9's on-brand overly dramatic music and intro. You'd think this is a Big Brother finale. The expert panel is Chris Uhlmann, Deborah Knight and David Crowe. Vote here: 9news.com.au/national/feder…

Scott Morrison won the coin toss, he goes first. He's on script, been told to not get nasty (but he will, later). He's rattling off on the economy, but that just sounds silly now given all the alarms going off on the economy following his sloppy work. He's stumbling a bit.

Albo up now, he details a better future; cheaper childcare, restoring Medicare, lifting wages, cleaner and cheaper energy, bringing back manufacturing, education places for training, fixing aged care, dignity for older Aussies. Says he will accept responsibility (hint, hint).

Question on reducing cost of living.

Albo says Labor has a number of plans to bring wages up and combat rising costs of food and energy by growing the economy without putting upwards pressure on inflation.

Morrison lays blame on war and pandemic, talks about AAA rating, and how he temporarily cut the fuel tax. Then mentions the one-off bonuses he's doled out, but says we can't control factors driving up prices. Mentions the false bulk billing rate.

Albo says the problem with Morrison's answer is he relies on temporary measures which have all the longevity of a fake tan. He says Labor is the only party which achieves long-term reforms, and Liberals achieve waste and deficit. They cut him off.

Morrison says he's happy with how he's brought fuel prices down because oil prices will come down in six months (he's betting on it). He says after that he'll continue what he's always been doing and the best protection you have is your job (hmmm).

Albo says too many Australians are in insecure work and half a million Aussies working three or more jobs. He says addressing wage growth will help Australians, but wages have flatlined for 10 years. He says Morrison has no plan to address this.

Question on spending; Does Morrison take responsibility for interest rate rise.

Morrison says no, he says that's for the reserve bank and rattles off a number of other countries without mentioning that many, many economies are doing much better than us on inflation. So he says it's a global thing but that's not the real story.

Morrison is asked to clarify, and he says the reason things are so rosy (they aren't) is the success of the Australian economy.

Albo says Labor's investments are about growing productivity to avoid driving up inflation. He raises childcare, says making it affordable will increase women's workforce participation, driving up productivity.

Albo slams Scott for saying petrol prices and interest rates would only go up under Labor. As we all know, they went up under Scott.

Uhlmann asks Albo to guarantee wages will raise faster than inflation. It's a gotcha, Albo responds that he guarantees wages will grow faster than under Morrison, and details his plans on addressing insecure work and minimum wage. Uhlmann isn't happy.

Uhlmann says Morrison is trying to keep power prices down before getting all friendly with Scott and throwing to him to explain. Morrison, grateful for the free kick, talks some tricky numbers on power prices (ignoring the massive hikes in power prices).

Morrison says he's actually cut electricity prices (despite the massive surges). He says he's keeping prices down, and is cut off.

Morrison asked on the trillion dollar debt and his spending.

He says he will be achieving surplus, and says before the pandemic he was doing that (that relied on some pretty dodgy measures, such as the illegal and now partially refunded deadly Robodebt scheme).

Albo points out that Morrison doubled the debt before the pandemic. Knight asks Albo why he's matching Morrison on spending. Albo says he's not (he isn't, Morrison is outspending Albo 7-to-1).

Albo says his spending is restrained and is based on targeted investments which will reduce prices for Australians. Morrison interrupts Albo, and they're biffing a bit. Albo corrects Morrison, but he won't stop. It's not making Morrison look good, I say let him dig his hole.

They're arguing over prices going up/down. Morrison thinks up is down. Albo breaks it down for Morrison, explains how a solar panel reduces power prices. Albo criticises Snowy 2.0 and says the spending is out of control and the deadline is blowing out.

Morrison is getting all smirky, finally they're cutting him off. Next question on housing and rental prices.

Albo says Labor is investing in social housing, affordable units for essential workers and the help-to-buy scheme which has been successfully running in states for decades. Albo says public and affordable housing is a big part of Labor's platform.

Morrison is asked on national debt, how long will it take young Australians to pay it back?

Morrison says young Australians will be in work and will understand his borrowing and they should make sure they get jobs and that's why he's announced $3.7bn to train them up. He says young people will be on welfare for life if they don't work. He apparently misheard the Q.

Question for Albo on gotchas, Uhlmann accuses Albo of lying about it on Q and A (nutter).

Albo corrects Uhlmann. Albo says the NDIS is about people and his response was about putting people at the centre of it and stopping the cuts and waste. Uhlmann pushes back, Albo not having it, says dot points aren't the point, the NDIS is the point.

Uhlmann to Morrison: why don't people trust you?

Morrison says it's the way people have viewed him and their circumstances, which have led them to feel bad about their government, but they've seen what he's achieved, and the economy is all sunshine. Uhlmann gives him a chance to improve his response, drags him back on track.

Morrison says the reason his colleagues don't trust him is because he's assertive and they just handle it badly. And that he's actually really good at his job.

Question for Albo, has small target backfired?

Albo says his targets aren't small and are based on enhancing solid reforms. In my own view, Medicare, NDIS, NBN are great reforms and restoring them will be complemented by ICAC. I don't think it's right to say that's small target at all.

Question to Morrison, shouldn't a leader unite, not divide?

Morrison says he united his party (ignoring that his own discrimination bill split his party down the middle, his captain's picks landed him in court, and the coalition is at war over net zero). Morrison denies he's divisive. He won't say if he'll campaign in inner-city though.

Albo says Scott you can't even campaign with your treasurer. Morrison says he is campaigning with Josh in Kooyong (is he?). Albo says we're in North Sydney right now, and the member for North Sydney will not be seen with the PM.

Question on corruption. Morrison says he doesn't believe there is any corruption and he's never seen it (trust me, I'm a rat). He says AFP and ATO are already on it, and there's nothing to worry about.

Morrison asked about particular cases, he says he has no knowledge or involvement of/in any of them. Albo asked same question, he says yes, NSW ICAC has found corruption and whether it's Labor or Liberal, it's good to stamp it out. Slams Scott on Kangaroo Court comments.

Albo says there's a stench around Canberra. He lists off Leppington Triangle, Sports Rorts, others, before being cut off.

Question on choice between PMs, do people like them.

Morrison says it's a choice, rattles off his economy cliches. Albo says anti-corruption, childcare, climate change and costs of living give Australians something to think about. Scott attacks, says Albo doesn't have draft ICAC legislation.

Albo hits back, says Morrison doesn't allow debate in the house and it's not the role of the opposition to bring legislation into a hostile house that won't debate it. It gets messy, Morrison tries to bully Albo but Albo is having none of it, he's prepared for this.

Voting intermission: 9news.com.au/national/feder…

Voting isn't working for me at all.

Loads of reports that voting isn't working for anyone. Well that's a job well done, Channel 9. Well bloody done.

Question from Albo to PM: On vaccine strollout and PM's comment that it wasn't a race. As a result more people had worse outcomes and the economy took a massive hit - does Morrison regret it?

Morrison says no. He says all the setbacks are other people's faults. Blames CMO, ATAGI, etc, but says nothing to do with him (ignoring that his government turned Pfizer away when it was given chance to be first in line).

Question to Albo from Morrison: On negative gearing, retirees tax, opposing tax cuts, boats, gas, all the bogey men, Morrison wants to know what's going on.

Albo says under his leadership Labor policy started anew and that changing stance has resulted in an improved position. He says there's no sense in reviving policies that went to election unsuccessfully. Morrison not happy because Albo aced it, interrupts him, more argy bargy.

2nd question from Albo to PM: Minimum wage is $20.33 should all Aussies get at least the minimum wage? Morrison says it depends if you're running a business. Albo pulls him up, says gig economy is less than minimum wage, creating a sub-class of people.

Morrison says Uber drivers are business people and they're taking charge of their own life (fark). Albo raises agricultural workers, Morrison says as long as they're not from overseas they're probably getting paid right (farrrrrrk).

More argy bargy. Morrison would've been coached about restraint. He's slipping up. Morrison asks Albo: person earning $30k getting pay rise to $120k will have to pay more for shared-price housing scheme, is that bad?

Albo says there's flexibility in the system and it's been operating like this now for decades in WA and Vic. Morrsion hates the answer and gets whiny, he calls it "forced to buy" scheme and this is all messy.

Question: how do you define a woman (here we go). Albo: an adult female. Morrison: a member of the female sex.

Question to PM: Do you have a problem appealing to women?

Morrison, gets his croaky voice on. Says 1 in 11 women suffer from gendered violence, then says actually it's 1 every 11 days. Then mentions his investments in women's health. Those bloody women, how dare they not be shining his shoes over his generosity.

He's all defensive now, says his workplace is fine because it's not just his workplace, it's plenty of workplaces around the country (where women aren't safe).

Albo says he's supported the PM as much as is possible, but Labor has gone much further to ensure change is structured and effective. Kitching is raised by Knight, why no investigation, Albo says Kitching was involved in Labor's structural changes.

Albo says he has confidence in his front bench and he says there is sometimes conflict, he put and kept Kitching on the front bench.

Question on aged care.

Albo says putting nurses in nursing homes is central to the plan. He says getting part time nurses to accept full time work, and training up more nurses will restore care to nursing homes. He says pay rises will attract and retain nurses.

Question to Morrison on Aged Care neglect. Morrison says it happened under other governments, not just his, and he says we all know what the problems are but the solutions are very difficult and he's spending money to get more nurses (he previously rubbished that idea).

Morrison says he was the one who called the royal commission. Albo corrects him, says Labor called for it and put extraordinary pressure on Morrison to do it. And says Morrison only did it because he was cornered when he lost the majority in the reps. Morrison is slime.

Question on China / Solomons - what does Morrison's red line on China mean? Morrison says words, no answer though. Just waffle. How will he stop China building a military base? He says he can't speculate. Huge walk back from his previous comments in recent weeks; backed down.

He's pressed again. He waffles again, he says he can't explain the red line but Australians understand it. Albo says it's a massive failure, biggest since WW2. Albo says we know China is more aggressive and the government failed to respond.

Morrison interrupts, asks Albo why he cut defence spending some time ago. Albo says he put US bases in Darwn and Morrison sold the Darwin Port to China. Now Morrison gets super defensive, saying it wasn't him personally. They're fighting. Morrison won't shut up. Hahaha.

Question Albo on being soft on China. Albo says that's an outrageous slur and details Labor's solid history on national security. Albo mentions coalition's track record (a number of scandals). Albo says Abbott was very pro-China and that was fine, but things have since changed.

It's getting hard to scribe this, it's three people all yelling over each other 🤷‍♂️

Question on closing borders on stranded Aussies - was that a moment of shame? Morrison says no, it was necessary. Fails to mention that he was warned to build quarantine and never did. States took up this slack and that's why Aussies finally got home. No thanks to Scott.

Now Morrison tries to take credit for state's Hotel Quarantine and says you can't build dedicated quarantine.

Question to Albo on vax, free RATs, quarantine. Why isn't he keen for these now? Albo says these were things that were needed at very critical times, in emergencies and, like vaccines, they were missing. This is not a backflip, he maintains those things were needed at the time.

Question on teal indies. They don't want to work with Scott, will he resign so Libs can form gov in hung parl scenario? He dodges the question, says teals are an invitation to great chaos. Basically tells people they can't vote for independents.

Morrison dodges question on if Dutton will take over. They call him out, he keeps dodging it. Morrison throws to Albo. Albo is very happy to answer. Morrison realises his mistake and tries to walk back to him talking.

Question on sports on free-to-air TV. Morrison says Albo and Scomo are the same, it should be on free-to-air. Albo says ah, no, he's promising more than that. He wants to make sure people can access content easily on smart TVs.

Morrison says that's same as me, Albo says you haven't done anything about it. Morrison says "you'll work it out when you get in I guess" or similar words.

Closing statement - Scott: More "it's a choice, strong economy, yadda yadda" - buzzwords on economy, budget, etc. I think we've all worked out that these words have meant nothing for three years.

More digs at Albo, Labor, risk, can you trust him, yadda yadda.

Albo: He thanks Scott, Nine and viewers at home. Says you do have a choice. You can choose lower costs, a better future. There are huge problems right now, we can start to fix them right now. Aged cared, climate, costs of living, equality for women - all issues right now.

Albo concludes - four words you'll never hear from me: "that's not my job."

The debate has concluded. Easy win for Albo on hostile ground and honestly I was surprised to see Scott so off his game. He's usually got more fire and force, but he seemed very off-colour tonight. I reckon he saw the polls on the way in.

And Channel 9's voting website still isn't working 🙃