The two leaders locked horns and the room full of voters decided the opposition leader won the night.

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison faced off in Brisbane at the first Election 22 Debate, with the Labor leader winning 40 per cent of the votes compared to Morrison’s 35. The remaining votes were undecided.

The result was decided by a room full of undecided voters, who were recruited by a market intelligence firm and were made to declare they had no Party affiliations.

What was debated 

All up there were about half a dozen questions, asked by a range of men and women, young and old.

The topics of questions included home affordability, aged care, NDIS, boat turnbacks and more.

Everything you need to know about Election 22 Debate – Night One

How it started 

Both leaders were able to give short opening statements before questions were asked.

Morrison spruiked how much better Australia was doing than expected.

“Australians are incredibly resilient… and now we’re in a very strong position despite the many challenges we continue to face,” he said. 

“Our economy today is one of the strongest in the advanced world.”

Albanese opened his remarks by saying Australians could have a “better future under a better government.”

“The government’s been in office for almost a decade and the truth is that they haven’t learned from the mistakes they keep repeating and they don’t have a plan for the future,” he said.

“We must do better and we can do better. And one way we can do better is by having a national anti-corruption commission to restore faith in politics. It’s needed.”

And then, the debate kicked off.

Albanese was dominant early on with questions like aged care and anti-corruption commission giving him the opportunity to attack the government for not doing enough.

Labor’s key part of its budget reply was a $2.5 billion aged care package to “fix” the sector.

It has also promised a more beefed up model of an anti-corruption commission to what the government has, leaving the door open to public hearings and retrospectivity – unlike the Coalition. 

A defining moment 

The two leaders were put on the spot when asked by Sky host Kieren Gilbert’s own question, about how each is running scare campaigns against the other.

For Labor, that means the claim the government will expand the cashless welfare card to pension.

For the Coalition, that’s the attack of Labor being soft on borders and boat turnbacks, when actually the opposition now has the exact same policy. 

But, the past is a tricky thing.

Because Labor hasn’t always supported boat turnbacks, which Morrison instituted to stop deaths at sea.

And so, even though Albanese made clear he had the same policy now he was pushed into an absolute corner by Morrison when asked if he supported boat turnbacks in 2013.

Think long awkward silence, followed by the concession: “well no”.

The recovery

Much like his stumble over the unemployment rate last week, Albanese knew he’d stuffed up but threw his energy into redirecting.

At the very end of the debate, Albanese reframed the stuff up and said he had “embraced” boat turnbacks when he saw the value.

He also took advantage of the many other questions that worked in his favour. That is one on the NDIS and one on the floods.

This allowed Albanese to attack Morrison on cuts to the NDIS and on his government’s record on climate change.

Ultimately, he recovered.

Missteps from Morrison 

While Morrison didn’t have as obvious an “uh-oh” moment, there were some comments that raised eyebrows.

Those included a comment that he’d “been blessed” with two healthy daughters when asked by a mother of an autistic boy what he would do to ensure NDIS plans weren’t unfairly cut.

The other was the attack on Labor as the Party cosier with China, which is dangerous because it literally politicises national security… and most people are not happy about that.

Albanese’s massive preparation effort

The opposition leader scaled back events for the day of and the day before the debate. 

In doing so, it gave him the opportunity to prepare all afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Morrison did three to four events a day, flying from WA through SA before the big night.  

And it seems the tactic of practice practice practice paid off.

Watch: People react to leaders’ debate

Stay on top of the latest 2022 Federal Election news on So Perth.