The death of Pope Francis overshadowed the federal election on Tuesday with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton pausing their campaigns as a mark of respect.
But the two leaders were back at it on Tuesday night, facing-off inside Sydney’s Channel Nine studios for the third of four election debates.
With early voting under way ahead of the 3 May poll, the prime minister and opposition leader are running out of time to convince the large cohort of undecided voters.
Here were five key takeaways.
1. Dutton blames Labor for poll decline
Dutton’s campaign has been plagued by stumbles, policy backflips and mixed messaging, which have coincided with a dramatic collapse in the opinion polls.
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But the opposition leader wasn’t fessing up to any mistakes on his part, instead blaming Labor’s negative advertising campaign for dragging the Coalition’s vote.
“The Labor party (has) spent $20m throwing mud and negative ads, and that has an impact – and I get that,” he said.
2. The biggest ‘lies’
The two leaders were invited to rebuff the “biggest lie” their opponent has pushed during the campaign, prompting the most animated back-and-forth of an otherwise lacklustre debate.
Dutton nominated the $600bn price tag attached to the Coalition’s nuclear reactors and Labor’s “scare campaign” claiming he would gut Medicare.
Albanese, in turn, pointed to unanswered questions about where the Coalition would cut to fund its proposed nuclear reactors.
The argument predictably returned to Tony Abbott’s ill-fated 2014 budget, which Albanese said ripped $80bn out of health and education funding.
Dutton said Albanese “couldn’t lie straight in bed”, to which Albanese responded: “You can go to abuse – that’s just a sign of desperation.”
Interestingly, Albanese did not repeat the $600bn nuclear costing – a figure based on Smart Energy Council analysis – during the debate.
Dutton later confirmed the Coalition would not dump the policy if it lost the election.
“I haven’t committed to nuclear energy for votes. I committed to it because it’s in the best interests of our country,” he said.
3. Don’t risk Dutton in ‘uncertain times’: Albanese
With Donald Trump launching global trade wars and conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, Albanese was asked to identify the biggest threat facing Australia.
“Complacency and the uncertain world that we inherit,” the prime minister said.
In that context, Albanese said it was the worst time to take a “risk” on a leader such as Dutton, referencing his infamous 2015 joke about the plight of Pacific nations under threat from climate change.
“It’s not a joke, climate change. It’s something that is the entry fee to credibility in our region,” Albanese said.
Earlier, Dutton was offered the chance to walk back a previous claim that he could secure exemptions to Trump’s tariffs, a feat that no world leader has managed to achieve.
The opposition leader sidestepped the question, instead talking up his own personal dealings with past US administrations, including Trump’s first presidency.
4. The winner?
The three Nine Entertainment journalists who fired questions at the leaders – Deb Knight, Charles Croucher and Phil Coorey – scored the contest 2-1 in favour of Dutton, marking the opposition leader up for his performance on the crucial topic of cost of living.
“(The debate) was very close, but I think it was by far Peter Dutton’s best debate,” Croucher said. “And because it’s a cost-of-living election, it was, in my eyes, he won by a nose.”
The verdict means the leaders have won one debate each after Albanese was judged the winner of the News Corp-hosted people’s forum earlier in the campaign.
The second, ABC-hosted debate did not declare a winner.
5. Debated out?
The leaders will face off again on Sunday night with 7News hosting the final debate of the campaign.
After a largely dull affair on Tuesday night, where the leaders repeated their well-rehearsed talking points from inside a sterile television studio, voters would be forgiven for tuning out.
