Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten face-off in Australia’s first online Leaders’ Debate
MALCOLM Turnbull and Bill Shorten faced off in an unprecedented online Leaders’ Debate and neither one held back.
Welcome to our live blog covering the news.com.au Facebook debate
Welcome to our live blog covering the news.com.au Facebook debate. You can watch the debate live on this page and the news.com.au Facebook page.
7.10pm
Watch the debate again
You can also catch up on what you missed in our blog below.
7pm
And that’s a wrap ...
We’ve just wrapped up Australia’s first online Leaders’ Debate, highlights included Bill Shorten hijacking the debate by asking for “Likes” while other topics included marriage equality and university education.
6.59pm
It’s what Paul Keating called ‘The Vision Thing’
There’s one final question from Facebook. Dean Troth says “People are attracted to a bold but realistic vision ... what is your medium-term vision for what Australia will look like in three or six years?
PM: The opportunities are huge. Half of the world’s middle class will be living to our north in Asia. We can do anything but we’ve got to be innovative, got to be competitive, got to be productive, got to be on the balls on our feet and that requires a strong economy. What I’m doing is enabling the dreams of every Australian.
Shorten: I want to save Medicare. I want to make sure that every school is a great school. I wamt to make sure that working parents ... get relief from the cost of childcare. I want to make sure our TAFE sector is revitalised. I want to lead a country which makes steel products. I want to make sure we have innovations for infrastructure ... a National Broadband Network. I want to makes sure people .. are paid properly.
6.58pm
Another Facebook live question, this one’s about political perks
Michelle Thompson wants to know when the leaders will start talking about axing politician pensions, “they should be treated the same as self-funded retirees”.
PM: Politicians are well paid, there is no question about that. Their pay is set by an independent remuneration tribunal. I’m probably the worst person to talk about it. I didn’t go into parliament to make more money .. but if they’re not paid then only wealthy people can afford to be members of parliament.
Shorten: I understand community outrage when they see people getting helicopters between Melbourne and Geelong. We get 15.4 per cent super ... but what I don’t understand is why the Liberal Party keeps freezing increases to everyone else’s superannuation. I’m committed to lifting the superannuation.
6.55pm
Why is university becoming so unaffordable?
Trent from Lindsay, NSW asks about quality education given it’s crucial for the success of businesses, companies, individuals and the wider Australian community.
PM: It is vitally important that university is accessible to everyone. That’s why we have HECS. We’re seeking to reform and provide more flexibility to universities. We are not going to deregulate fees entirely. We will seek to offer universities the ability to deregulate fees ... for a small number of flagship courses so that they can compete.
Hildebrand: Doesn’t that mean people with more money will get into top courses?
PM: I completely disagree with that.
Shorten: Labor doesn’t support Mr Turnbull’s party cutting 20 per cent of university funding. We don’t support the deregulation of university fees. We’ll provide a minimum student funding guarantee of $10,800 per student per year.
Hildebrand: Is it not true that we are only going to see the benefits of that in a generation’s time ... at best?
Shorten: The idea that somehow you can be an innovation nation without being an education nation is political rubbish.
6.53pm
Marriage equality — what the hell are we waiting for?
There was a heated exchange over this topic.
PM: I’m in favour of it. I support same sex marriage. If we return to government, there will be a plebiscite. I’ll be voting yes. I’m confident it will be carried.
Shorten: I will put a bill into parliament to vote upon within the first 100 days after the election to make marriage equality legal in this country. We’ve seen two terrible events in the last week that have shown hate and terrorism does exist in modern societies. I don’t want to give haters a chance to ... make life harder for LGBTI people. Let’s just vote.
PM: I believe Australians are better than that. I believe we can have a discussion about marriage equality. It can be civil.
Shorten: Let’s just lead. Let’s not just wait til you appease the right wing of your party. Let’s just be done with it.
6.52pm
Please don’t shoot the messenger ...
Another update from Andrew Bucklow and it’s not good news for the PM. apparently the most popular reaction was “Like”, a reaction to Mr Shorten asking people to show support for fibre to the premises.
There have also been a lot of comments from over-50s about youth unemployment.
Other comments included: “Why can the Chinese sell here but pay no tax? I had to open a company in Hong Kong to remain competitive”.
We’ve also reached the home stretch, and the leaders will only have 60 seconds each to answer.
6.50pm
A Facebook question about mental health.
“The Lindt cafe siege, the Hornsby Westfield incident, domestic violence ... what are you going to do to improve mental health services and prevent future tragedies”.
Shorten: I think one of the biggest challenges within mental health is suicide prevention. Another really difficult issue is sub-acute care. We’ve made a decision to scrap the proposed price hike for medicines. The more we destigmatise and avoid prejudice in mental health, we’ll be a better country.
PM: We are spending record amounts on mental health services now. It is critical that frontline services for mental health are as close as possible to patients. We are spending money on it and we are continuing to grapple with it.
6.46pm
But Hildebrand wasn’t buying it saying the promises kept changing and the cost growing: “It doesn’t sound like either of you can build an NBN”.
6.45pm
OK, another question from the audience ... the kind they call a “zinger”
Andrew says young people are leaving regional NSW to head to major cities, by way of job creation, what do you have in place to keep young people in these areas?
PM: It’s a very big issue. If there’s growth, then companies expand. We’re supporting (small and medium companies) through innovation policies.
Shorten: Our plan for jobs is to make sure we’ve got a good education system. Give a child a good education system and you set them up for life. You should have a good NBN. I would just like to see people press “Like” if they would prefer to have fibre than copper.
6.40pm
What actual evidence do you have that reducing company tax will lead to mass employment?
Bob says he paid more tax last year than most large corporations.
PM: If you cut company tax, what you do is improve the return on investment. You get more employment and this grows the economy that does ultimately result in higher tax revenues.
Shorten: This has been one of the great lies. They’ve got a plan to reward big banks and mining companies to improve profit to their bottom line.
6.35pm
We’re at the halfway mark
News.com.au journalist Andrew Bucklow gives the audience an update on the Facebook reaction.
“So far the most popular reaction is anger”, he says.
There’s also cheeky comments about the NBN as well as housing affordability.
6.30pm
Another audience question, this time about climate change
Tamlyn says: “I would like to understand the personal stance of both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten on the issue of climate change”.
Shorten: We’ve set ambitious targets and the Libs say the targets can’t be met but you are guaranteed to fail if you don’t try.
PM: I am absolutely committed to achieving a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The good news was a global agreement was reached at Paris to cut emissions. “I am satisfied we can meet those cuts”.
6.20pm
Housing affordability ... but not negative gearing
A question from Catherine O’Donnell who says her family is being ripped apart, as they moved away from Sydney to have a better chance of owning a home. She wants to know about solutions beyond negative gearing ... what else is on the table?
Shorten: We’ve said we want to sit down with the states to work out more supply of land.
Turnbull: Says housing affordability is caused by a lack of supply and points to his Cities plan.
6.10pm
Audience question about penalty rates
Mary says she’s always been a shift worker and missed Christmas and New Year celebrations at least 17 times. She said she often feels disconnected from family and friends. She asks what value they placed on the sacrifice of shift workers make.
PM: I respect the sacrifice you make, we have no plans to change penalty rates and awards are set by the Fair Work Commission. “I can give you this pledge, there are no plans whatsoever to change penalty rates”.
Shorten: Labor are very committed to defending penalty rates, he said if elected, Labor would put in a submission to the Fair Work Commission supporting the retention of penalty rates.
But Mr Turnbull said it was not the government’s role to tell the commission what to do and it should be independent.
6.05pm
The first question: Why is it that the Australian people should trust anything a politician says?
PM Malcolm Turnbull says they are offering a clear economic growth and more jobs, and says that he was committed to the PM being the same after the election. “We do need stability, continuity and a clear plan”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor trusts the Australian put make a decision. “Who do you trust to save Medicare, who do you trust to fund schools and who do you trust to make multinationals pay their fair share?”
6pm
Firstly, the rules
Host Joe Hildebrand sets the ground rules and asks for a “slogan free zone”.
Each leader will have 90 seconds to answer each question.
5.50pm
The leaders arrive
5.45pm
Natalie Kibble is concerned about science and university research
Adelaide undecided voter Natalie Kibble is one of the lucky few selected to be part of tonight’s debate.
Ms Kibble, 33, of Kurralta Park in the city’s western suburbs, said she was not sure whether or not she wanted to give her first preference vote to a major party.
“The reason that I’m here is that I’m undecided at the moment,” she told news.com.au.
“I haven’t watched it yet, but I heard that Bill Shorten was confident and convincing on Q&A (on Monday night) and I’m hoping this helps me make up my mind.”
Ms Kibble, a science lab manager, said she was most concerned about funding for science and university research.
5.30pm
The audience arrives
The undecided voters were selected from marginal electorates identified by independent Galaxy Research. They come from Hindmarsh, La Trobe, Corangamite, Eden-Monaro, Brisbane, Petrie, Deakin, Gilmore, Page, Banks, Reid, Macarthur and Lindsay.
5.20pm
More than 3000 questions received
The questions being put to the leaders tonight have come from news.com.au readers.
They include questions selected from more than 3000 submitted over the past week via news.com.au’s Facebook page.
Topics covered during the debate were determined by the issues Australians indicated mattered to them online, including news.com.au’s State of the Nation Survey, Newspoll surveys and polling data, as well as Facebook data research on the most mentioned topics and terms in connection with the 2016 election.
Other questions will come live from tonight’s audience and the remaining questions will come live from Facebook as readers react to the leaders’ answers.
The debate will run for 45 minutes.
4.30pm
Welcome to Australia’s first online Leaders’ Debate
Hopefully you’ll manage to find a beer and settle in for the country’s first online leaders’ debate due to start at 6pm AEST.
We’ll be updating this blog so you can follow the action and you will also be able to watch the debate here once it goes live.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will go head-to-head at Facebook Australia’s headquarters, and the interactive debate will be streamed live on news.com.au’s Facebook page.
Columnist and TV host Joe Hildebrand will be asking questions taken from Facebook and based on the State of the Nation survey. The leaders will also be quizzed by an in-house audience of undecided voters from marginal electorates.
Online viewers will be able to submit questions during the debate via the comments section of news.com.au’s live Facebook post.
You can also watch the debate on Facebook Australia’s page as well as on the news.com.au homepage.
.@Joe_Hildebrand getting ready to host the #leadersdebate #nopressure @newscomauHQ @facebook pic.twitter.com/YsCJ2zDWz5
— Lisa Muxworthy (@LisaMuxworthy) June 17, 2016
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