Leaders debate: Peter Dutton fails to knock out PM in debate he needed to win

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton gave a confident performance in his second sparring match with the Prime Minister but despite a few jabs, neither side managed to land a knockout blow.

He has been keen to talk up his underdog status, but after a steady slide in the polls, the Opposition Leader needed a win to give the Coalition some momentum.

By clinging to well-rehearsed lines, Mr Dutton did little to inject life into his stuttering bid for office.

He hit the Coalition’s key notes in a mundane opening on the cost of living, blaming Labor for rising food and interest rates, and offering a $1200 tax break and 25c a litre fuel excise cut as the answer.

“Are you better off today than you were three years ago?” came his common refrain. But he did not convince that he could make it better.

Instead, he leaned too much into negativity and slamming Labor’s record than talking up his own party’s solutions for improving voters’ lives.

“This Prime Minister has a problem with the truth,” he said, but on housing, energy and planned cuts to the public service he ducked and weaved and was pressed repeatedly for “clarity” about his own views.

His evasiveness gave the Prime Minister the chance to score a soft blow — “it’s vote for me and just trust us, we’ll tell you after the election”.

Mr Albanese landed another punch over Mr Dutton’s foreign policy own goal on Indonesia, where he was forced to admit “he made a mistake” by rushing to say the Indonesian president confirmed reports of a Russian military deal.

Mr Dutton also appeared to waver on the impact of climate change, in a waffling and sceptical answer that risks a voter backlash.

No Australian election has ever been won or lost on a debate, but Mr Dutton had the chance to convince undecided voters beyond his loyal base and he missed it.

After a lacklustre campaign marred at the halfway point by U-turns and blunders, the Opposition Leader has done little to turn his campaign’s fortunes around.

His saving grace may be that in a tight race with unprecedented numbers of floating voters, neither leader did much to inspire.