Scott Morrison has accused Labor of siding with China, while Anthony Albanese has claimed he would have done better with the economic response to the pandemic, during an evenly-matched leaders’ debate that wavered between civility and spite.

In a people’s forum televised by Sky News and held before 100 undecided voters from Queensland, the Labor leader was declared the winner by 40 per cent of the audience, 35 per cent gave the Prime Minister the nod, and 25 per cent were undecided.