News Corp queries audience independence after Albanese declared debate winner

News Corp’s top political minds declared Peter Dutton the clear winner of its paywalled leaders’ election debate on Tuesday night despite the independently selected audience of 100 undecided voters favouring Anthony Albanese.

The People’s Forum broadcast, hosted by Sky News Australia and The Daily Telegraph, was available only to those with a paid subscription to either Foxtel, Sky News’s digital platform, one of News Corp’s major mastheads, or in some selected regional television markets.

Albanese won the debate according to a poll of the 100 undecided voters at the debate.Credit: News Corp Australia

This means it’s unlikely a complete and final audience viewing figure will be available from an independent ratings agency. About 175,000 Australians tuned in to the 2022 version, and a Sky spokesperson said it would share a cross-platform figure by Thursday afternoon.

News Corp’s top political commentators immediately cast doubt on the political leanings of its audience’s profile, which had a 100-person panel made up of “undecided voters” selected by independent firm Q&A Market Research.

“I was starting to wonder about the composition of the undecided voters,“ Telegraph editor Ben English said on Sky in response to the audience questions, adding that “there might be a few inquiries” in the aftermath. He made his comments before the audience poll result was revealed.

The Daily Telegraph’s front page on Wednesday after Anthony Albanese was declared the winner of its leaders debate.Credit: News Corp

The Telegraph’s Ray Hadley said he was “baffled” and left “questioning the objectivity” of some of the voters on Wednesday.

The audience declared Anthony Albanese the winner, with a margin of 44 to Dutton’s 35, while 21 remained undecided. In 2022, the People’s Forum handed then-opposition leader Albanese the win over Scott Morrison, albeit by a closer margin of 40-35.

As the debate this year was mostly behind a paywall, most of the electorate was left to rely on the accounts of different media outlets to decipher who came out on top. Outside News Corp, Australia’s largest publisher of news, most determined it a narrow Albanese win, or a draw.

English and Sky political editor Andrew Clennell also questioned the audience before the results were announced, the latter calling Dutton the “clear winner” on the broadcast.

Among questions from the audience, one voter from western Sydney asked both leaders about their approach to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which led Hadley to voice his doubt over her status as an undecided voter “given the tone of her question”, he told The Daily Telegraph.

On Wednesday morning, Sky’s website said the prime minister had failed to win over most voters despite winning the audience vote.

Five of The Australian’s expert panel of seven handed Dutton the win, with one for Albanese and one for a draw, while two of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s panel called a draw. Jacqueline Maley handed Albanese the win.

The Daily Telegraph national affairs editor James Morrow, national weekend political editor James Campbell and the political editor for The Australian, Simon Benson, all gave victory to Dutton.

The Australian’s front page on Wednesday April 9.Credit: News Corp

Before the result was delivered on Paul Murray Live on Tuesday evening, the Liberal National Party’s official social media account had declared Dutton the winner.

Dutton and Albanese will go head to head in a debate again on April 16, live from the ABC’s new Parramatta studios, hosted by David Speers, but they are yet to agree on a potential two further debates. Channel Nine, owner of this masthead, and Seven have made formal bids to host debates ahead of polling day on May 3.

Next week’s debate on the public broadcaster will deliver a significantly larger audience, but the spectacle of the two-person face-off has become more of a campaign set piece rather than an event that will persuade voters one way or another, says Resolve pollster Jim Reed.

“They’re more or less expected, and if you refuse to take part in a debate, I think you look a bit weak or scared. So it’s something that they’re more or less obliged to do. Is there great value in them? That’s a bit of a question mark,” Reed says.

In an increasingly stage-managed affair, the focus is rather to avoid anything going wrong and hope the opponent slips up, he adds.

“The most likely impact on a campaign is actually when things go wrong, and it’s probably why the leaders’ offices and the campaign offices agree all the details of the debates well in advance.

“It’s really about de-risking the debate for them and hoping your opponent makes a mistake.”

Sky will host a second debate on Wednesday night between Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his challenger, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor.

A Sky spokesperson later said any suggestions it is displeased with the independent audience selection process is false.

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