James Morrow: Both leaders were impressive, but Dutton had the edge tonight

Both leaders performed well, but there are several reasons why Peter Dutton was the winner in the first debate, argues James Morrow.

So, who won the first leaders’ debate of 2025?

Was it Anthony Albanese, who came so loaded with detail that he left the audience swimming in numbers and fired off zingers that sounded like he workshopped them in the group chat?

Or was it Peter Dutton, who was calm, forensic, and willing to call out the Prime Minister for misleading scare campaigns – all while worrying about his dad, who had been rushed to hospital just hours before he took the stage?

Mr Dutton went into the debate the clear underdog, and he more than performed.

He was particularly strong early on in the debate when he called out the tricky way the Prime Minister has been calling changes in the rate of funding increases “cuts” to suggest the Coalition had and will “rip” money out of everything from Medicare to schools.

For the most part his answers were highly polished, and he played well to the audience – not just talking about the misery of the cost of living crisis, but also managing to parry and turn potentially hostile questions into positives.

Mr Albanese, too, was crisp and polished.

Gone was the 2022 vintage Albo, who stumbled on details and shambled through answers. Picture: Jason Edwards

Gone was the 2022 vintage Albo, who stumbled on details and shambled through answers.

But some of his answers were too clever by half:

When a truckie from Toongabbie asked about fuel excise tax cuts, an area of strength for Peter Dutton, Mr Albanese tried to do a pivot to talk about work from home.

You see, Mr Albanese said, working from home was under threat from Peter Dutton (it isn’t) and if it went away, traffic would get worse.

And he did, again, manage to get off some zingers (“if he doesn’t have the conviction to stand up for his own policies, how can he stand up for Australia?”).

The problem for the prime minister is that this came off smug as much as anything, and looked like political point scoring rather than trying to solve problems.

That’s a potentially fatal mistake, particularly as Peter Dutton has shown a new strength that has been absent for the past several weeks.

Advantage: Dutton.

Originally published as James Morrow: Both leaders were impressive, but Dutton had the edge tonight