Leaders’ debate: Morrison does a number on optimistic Albanese

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison at the leaders’ debate on Wednesday. Picture: Toby Zerna

Anthony Albanese won the first debate of the 2022 election campaign on the “vibe”, but Scott Morrison won it on the numbers.

The Opposition Leader, avoiding dollar figures and numbers, had some great lines about optimism, the future and how Labor was the party of big reforms. But the Prime Minister, salting every answer with facts and figures about the economy and spending, dominated the substance of the debate by sheer force of character, time spent addressing the national audience and staying completely on message.

Albanese had the advantage of low expectations after an appalling week of errors and blunders and performed better than he had since the beginning of the campaign. But, while he didn’t make any embarrassing mistakes he stumbled on the key history of border protection and was forced into admitting he didn’t support turning back people smugglers’ boats when he was deputy prime minister.

Morrison’s approach was confident and dominant without being aggressive.

He responded to Albanese’s strong reflection on the strengths of Hawke government reforms with the withering line: “Yes, it was Labor which introduced the big reforms; it was always the Liberal and Nationals who had to work how to pay for them”.

That was the essence of the debate: Albanese offering an optimistic but unspecified plan for the future and Morrison pointing to a world-beating economic recovery.