Welcome to the parallel dimension that is the Canberra ‘bubble’

Down to business … Opposition Leader Bill Shorten (left) and Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right) participate in the leaders’ debate at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: AAP

With ten days to go until polling day, the election campaign entered the parallel dimension that is the Canberra “bubble”.

The third leaders’ debate — held in a darkened National Press Club just 1.4km from Parliament House — was theatre for political tragics set to a politically partisan applause track.

The room was split into two halves, like a staged version of question time with the addition of lobbyists and political hacks, and the ABC’s Sabra Lane playing the role of speaker.

When Shorten made a joke, the left side of the room laughed. When Morrison attacked Shorten, the right side of the venue applauded.

At times the debate was polite, even friendly. “I thank Bill for his question,” Morrison said.

And Shorten: “What was the second part of your question Scott?”

But it also got heated, in typical Canberra fashion.

“I asked you a simple question,” Morrison said, in attack mode.

“You heard the answer,” said Bill.

Unlike the first debate, when the leaders were uncomfortably perched on tiny stools, both appeared comfortable, standing behind solid lecterns.

The format kept the leaders separate. There were no “space invader” moments.

The Labor side was routinely amused. There were Left guffaws as Shorten pushed back against Morrison’s claim the budget was in surplus.

Morrison retorted: “I said next year. I said we brought the Budget back to surplus next year.”

Morrison attacked Shorten’s “shifty” argument that businesses weren’t concerned about the price of his climate change policy.

Like the previous two debates, the Prime Minister talked off the top of his head while Shorten scribbled on a notepad as he went.

Shorten’s cheesy grin of previous debates was gone. At times he leant on the lectern, at one point appearing to do a small stretch as if he’s pulled up tight after his morning run.

Quizzed on their role in past leadership coups, Shorten let loose a trademark zinger, saying Australia needs one more change of prime minister.

And Morrison batted away a question from his rival about departing Coalition frontbenchers. “No need to get nasty,” he quipped.

In a final bubble moment, Lane raised the perennial Canberra issue — the debate about the debates — asking whether the leaders would agree to an “independent debates commission”.

Punters across the nation scratched their heads.