Rudd given nod in close debate

KEVIN Rudd has beaten Prime Minister John Howard by a slim margin in a one-off Sky News election debate in which neither leader landed a knockout blow.

If the debate had been a heavyweight title fight, the judges would probably have awarded the bout to the challenger in a split decision. But the federal election's only joint set-piece was more like the Rugby World Cup final - with little free-flowing play and most scoring coming from penalties.

Mr Howard used the occasion to announce a climate chage fund using money raised from the sale of carbon permits to subsidise the rising electricity bills of low income earners. He also foreshadowed a new role for some Australian troops in Iraq.

Mr Rudd pressed his claim as being the only leader with a vision for the future and with a plan for managing the economy after the resources boom.

The biggest controversy of the night came when the Nine Network's debate coverage was cut because it used much-loved "worm". The network's feed dropped out, forcing it to switch to showing the Sky News feed with the worm superimposed. Nine host Ray Martin claimed the worm had been "sabotaged".

The worm awarded the debate overwhelmingly to Mr Rudd. The debate's compere, Sky News political editor David Speers, said Mr Rudd won narrowly, but that the Prime Minister had performed better than ever before.

Readers joining a news.com.au live blog of the election debate heavily favoured Mr Rudd as the winner. A news.com.au poll favoured Mr Rudd early before a surge of support came in for Mr Howard, something noted by readers.

Political commentators assembled by Sky News to observe the debate unanimously awarded the contest to Mr Rudd.

The panel of four journalists - Sky's Kieran Gilbert, The Sydney Morning Herald's Marian Wilkinson, The Australian's Brad Norington and the Sun-Herald's Kerry-Anne Walsh - and body language expert Alan Pease all nominated Mr Rudd as the winner.

Most panellists said Mr Rudd appeared more concise and got his message across more clearly than Mr Howard who, they said, gained ground on climate and reconciliation issues but at times appeared negative and defensive.

Lasseters Sportsbook said Labor had firmed as favourite for the November 24 poll, down to $1.60 from $1.70 before the debate.

The Coalition's odds weakened from $2.15 to $2.30.

And linguistics expert Wendy Allen, from the University of Melbourne, gave the debate to Mr Rudd simply because he looked and sounded more positive and comfortable.

Ms Allen said the Prime Minister made several blunders during the live TV debate and looked annoyed through much of it, while Mr Rudd was able to inject some humour.

'Pathetic'

In a rare moment of acrimony, Mr Howard called Mr Rudd "pathetic" for quoting from an OECD report criticising Australia's investment in education which the Prime Minister said was incomplete.

"You were trying to mislead the Australian public," Mr Howard said. "That's pathetic. You were wrong and you knew it and you shouldn't have said it."

But other than that, there was little outright heat in the debate.

Mr Howard used his part of the 90 minutes in which the leaders faced off in Parliament's Great Hall in Canberra to announce that a Coalition government would use the proceeds of a proposed carbon trading scheme to provide help for low income earner to pay for rising energy bills.

"Low-income earners, particularly pensioners, will inevitably have to pay higher electricity and other charges as a result of the move towards cleaner technology," he said.

Mr Rudd was seen to stumble when asked for a response. While criticising the Coalition for a "lack of planning", he did not elaborate on his party's plan for setting short-term emissions reductions targets.

Mr Howard also used the debate to outline a switch for 580 troops in southern Iraq to a more training-oriented role. "I believe that force will undertake an even greater training role to bring the Iraqi forces up to a situation where they can look after themselves."

Iraq

However Mr Howard was pressed by the debate panel on whether Iraq had raised the terorist threat to Australia. Mr Rudd said the Prime Minister repeatedly dodged the question.

Mr Howard acknowledged families were facing cost-of-living pressures but said his planned $34 billion in tax cuts would help ease the strain on households. "You decide how best you're going to relieve your cost of living pressures," he said.

As he said "cost of living pressures", the "worm" took a marked turn downwards.

Mr Rudd said his tax cuts would cost less than those of the Government, putting less pressure on interest rates. But he would not guarantee interest rates would not go up under Labor.

Mr Rudd concluded by saying only Labor was preparing for an end to the mining boom.

"If you're going to craft out a future for Australia, you have to lay out a plan as well and not just hope it's going to be okay in the morning," he said.

But Mr Howard shot back that Mr Rudd was only speaking in slogans, not policy.

"We must remember that all the promises in the world and all the slogans about education revolutions and broadband and the like mean nothing, unless we have a strong economy," he said.

The Coalition ensured the entire frontbench was laid out before Mr Rudd. Speers was forced to call for restraint as heckles were called forth.

Treasurer Peter Costello, singled out by Mr Rudd as being chiefly to blame, said it was difficult to remain quiet during the head-to-head battle.

"The tough part is sitting there and hearing yourself talked about and not being able to say anything," he said.

But there was no interjection when the Prime Minister was lauding him as his successor in office if the Coalition is returned.

Both major political parties claimed victory.

Labor's treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said Mr Rudd's performance was "very strong".

But government frontbencher Andrew Robb said the worm was just meaningless entertainment that responded to Mr Rudd's empty sloganeering.

"The worm responds to people's instinctive reaction to focus-driven slogans," Mr Robb said.

"The worm doesn't monitor the substance of debates.

"There was only one person there really debating tonight and that was the Prime Minister."

 

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