Prominent conservative commentators and activists might have been wishing for a World Wrestling Entertainment-style smackdown of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews by Opposition Leader Matthew Guy during their only face-to-face debate, hosted by Sky News, before polling day.
However, it was not to be, with Andrews charming 38 of the room’s 100 undecided voters, while Guy snaffled 34, and 28 remained undecided.
The 2022 result is closer than that of the 2018 debate, when Andrews got 49 of the undecided voters on side, while Guy had 33, leaving only 18 undecided.
The evening’s format was built around fielding questions from the undecided voters, selected by research firm Q&A Market Research, with an introductory and concluding statement from the two leaders.
Moderator Kieran Gilbert, chief political reporter for Sky News, also had the two leaders ask each other a question at the end of proceedings.
Topics of concern to audience members ranged across portfolios such as health and transport, integrity issues including the operation of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), what the government and opposition have planned for military veterans, and the management of debt.
Guy’s efforts against Andrews were not seen as strong enough by some conservative commentators, who expressed disappointment he did not go in harder against the premier following two years of pandemic measures, the high state debt, and the “red shirts” scandal.
Herald Sun columnist and Sky News host Rita Panahi declared it a win for Andrews.
“Don’t know who needs to hear this, but Dan Andrews won last night’s leaders debate and it wasn’t even close,” Panahi said. “Guy did not land a single punch despite having abundant opportunity.”
Commentator Prue MacSween was hoping for some mongrel to emerge from the opposition leader during the debate.
“So frustrating in this debate between @MatthewGuyMP & @DanielAndrewsMP guy [sic] needs to get the mongrel out. He is letting Andrews get off the hook on integrity and corruption,” MacSween tweeted.
The Institute of Public Affairs’ Gideon Rozner threw his two cents in.
“Watching #springst leaders’ debate on Sky. Guy seems to have overcorrected for perceptions last time around of him being too ‘shouty’,” he said on Twitter. “Dan keeps sledging him and Guy just takes it. Guy *can* win — there’s a swing on. But he needed to go for the jugular tonight, and didn’t.”
Even Rebel News’ Avi Yemini had a thing or two to say about the encounter between Andrews and Guy.
“Sad news is Daniel Andrews is wiping the floor with Matthew Guy in the Sky News debate,” Yemini said. “We’re doomed.”
Yemini followed that tweet up with an election prediction: “Matthew Guy is weak. That’s why he’s losing the debate and will lose the election. Hard to watch.”
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