news.com.au Leaders’ Debate will be ‘different to any you’ve seen before’

MALCOLM Turnbull and Bill Shorten will clash this Friday in the first online leaders’ debate to be held in a federal election.

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will go head-to-head in a debate that promises to be ‘different to any you’ve seen before’.

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will go head-to-head in Australia’s first online Leaders’ Debate at 6pm this Friday, June 17.

news.com.au and Facebook today announced details of the 2016 Federal Election campaign’s third and final public debate, which will be streamed in real time via Facebook Live on news.com.au and news.com.au’s Facebook page.

The debate will also feature on the Facebook Australia page, offering voters an unprecedented opportunity to participate in real time on smartphones and other digital devices.

To be moderated by News Corp Australia columnist and Studio 10 host Joe Hildebrand, the debate will be hosted at Facebook Australia’s headquarters in Sydney.

Joe Hildebrand.

“This debate will be different to any you’ve seen before. It is a chance for millions of everyday Australians to not just to watch the debate, but to actively participate — by asking questions and giving their instant reactions,” news.com.au managing director Julian Delany said.

The leaders will face off in front of an in-person audience consisting of undecided voters from a diverse range of electorates around Australia that Galaxy Research has identified will determine the election outcome, as well as many more Australians online via the livestream.

From today, news.com.au and Facebook will call on all Australians to submit questions for Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten via news.com.au’s Facebook page. Those questions will be put to the leaders by Hildebrand, and the discussion will progress with live engagement from the studio and online audiences.

Topics to be covered during the debate will be determined by the issues that Australians have indicated matter to them online, including via 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.

“We are excited to partner with news.com.au to ensure that as many Australians as possible participate in this debate,” Stephen Scheeler, Managing Director of Facebook in Australia and New Zealand, said.

“Whether it’s posting questions on the news.com.au Facebook Page or watching and interacting with the livestream, we want to connect as many Australians as possible to one of the most important aspects of any election campaign — a leadership debate.”