Leadership debate: The moment viewers switched on to leaders’ arguments

OPINION: They avoided answering questions and skated over details ... but there was one moment during last night’s leaders debate that would have had viewers snapping to attention.

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WATCHING a political debate at the end of a week of watching politics day in, day out and looking toward another just the same is an unnatural way to view such an event.

You’ve heard all the lines, you can see the cognitive dissonance grinding into place and predict the questions which will be completely ignored.

As a very old colleague said a few decades ago, we are at a dangerous advantage in this caper: we know too much.

However, we have to watch it and we have to try to take ourselves off the couch — these days with the Twitter feed going — and regard the encounter as voters who’ve tuned in for maybe the first time might. That’s not easy but it can be done.

Last night it produced these notes from the lounge room.

To a casual viewer Malcolm Turnbull looked nervous as hell, which probably shocked people who are used to his “how excited am I” pitch while Bill Shorten sounded like his operating system was on full seven second delay with words separated by nothing.

Following this was a period of eye rolling and a desperate groan about bloody politicians as both leaders not just avoided the question but ignored it.

It was like they were asked if it was Sunday night and they said the breakfast they had in Newcastle on Friday showed their plan for growth was foolproof.

The point at which it was possible to imagine viewers snapping to attention was when Turnbull and Shorten were asked about their economic plan.

They might have skated the detail of the question — they both skated the detail of everything — but there was a gap that emerged.

Turnbull made a convincing case that cutting taxes would generate economic activity and create jobs. It’s not rocket science but it was 7.50 on Sunday night.

Shorten’s rebuttal is three parts attack, one part “I do have plan” and one part trust me.

The attack bit appeals to an argument that sounds dated in modern Australia: the bosses are always out to get you and this is fattening the rich.

The my plan part doesn’t actually have an economic basis: let me educate our kids and the economy will prosper (as if the other guys are going to stop schooling).

That was when Turnbull won it from my “every person’s couch” which means Labor still has the job in front of it.