In another quiet night on TV, it was the election debate that did the numbers with a total TV national reach of 1,765,000 and national reach 1,013,000 for the ABC.
In their second televised clash of the 2025 election campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton faced off in the ABC Leaders Debate, trading blows over foreign policy, energy, and Indigenous affairs with neither seeming to really land a fist.
Dutton admitted to a campaign misstep, conceding he had “verballed” Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto by incorrectly suggesting the leader confirmed Russia’s plans to base aircraft nearby.
On domestic policy, energy and cost-of-living pressures dominated. Albanese continued to evade direct answers on when power prices would fall, despite Labor’s 2022 promise of a $275 drop by 2025. He reiterated the government’s push toward renewables but provided no new commitments or timelines.
Dutton, meanwhile, attacked Labor’s lack of clarity while promoting the Coalition’s controversial plan to build seven nuclear power stations by 2050.
The pair also clashed over climate change, with Albanese reaffirming faith in the science and renewables, while Dutton deflected questions by stating, “I’m not a scientist.”
The two leaders found rare consensus in acknowledging the failure of successive governments to Close the Gap on Indigenous suicides but remained divided on how to move forward. Both called the statistics on Indigenous disadvantage “heartbreaking,” yet Dutton used the moment to criticise funding inefficiencies and flagged auditing under a proposed “Minister of Government Efficiency.”
