Search the news, stories & people Personalise the news and stay in the know Emergency Backstory Newsletters 中文新闻 BERITA BAHASA INDONESIA TOK PISIN analysis By Laura Tingle 7.30 Topic:Elections Pollsters will tell you that it is not just Donald Trump, or work from home policies, that have been responsible for the Coalition's decline in the opinion polls since the election campaign began. It is the sense that Peter Dutton and the Coalition just don't look ready for government: the lack of policy details, the campaign shemozzles. So, the ABC Leaders Debate was a big opportunity for voters to see who looked more prime ministerial or, alternatively, whether Peter Dutton looked like a potential prime minister. Halfway through the election campaign, the second debate revealed an opposition leader still trying to trade off voters not feeling better off than they did three years ago and a prime minister not able to answer all the questions about how he would improve underlying problems in the economy but clearly besting his opponent on dealing with an increasingly uncertain international environment. ABC leaders' debate live: Follow our blog as Albanese and Dutton face off a second time Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on ABC iview and ABC Listen Dutton began and ended the debate asking viewers whether they felt they were better off than they were when the Albanese government came to office three years ago. But he continued to fail to spell out how he would live up to his promises of managing the economy better, by getting inflation and interest rates down. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke more optimistically of the future, pointing to improving economic indicators on inflation, real wages, unemployment and interest rates, while conceding there was much more to do. The two leaders outlined their already-aired alternative plans for housing, but host David Speers challenged them on what they would do about existing tax breaks like negative gearing and whether they would change them. Dutton avoided a question about the fact the Coalition's proposed interest deduction for first-home buyers would help higher income earners more than average earners. He accused Albanese of lying when the PM denied the government had got bureaucrats to model changes to negative gearing, a charge which the PM didn't put to bed. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese traded blows on cost of living, housing, climate and dealing with US President Donald Trump. The PM defended his government's spending, pointing to its record in reducing debt and getting two surpluses. He argued that part of the reason spending was necessary now was because of the need to address a significant intergenerational equity that had built up in recent years. Dutton attacked the government's economic record over the past few years but declined, once again, to outline how the Coalition would pay for the spending promises that it has already made, and is still due to make, particularly in defence. Albanese said that affordable, and ultimately universal, childcare would be the one change he would like to be remembered for, while Dutton said fixing Australia's energy system was his big goal. The opposition leader rejected modelling that suggests nuclear power plants will need unsustainable levels of water, saying the coal fired power plants that have been operating at the proposed nuclear sites already use significant water and that the Coalition was "comfortable with the analysis we have done". He was vague when asked what he would do if local communities or state governments said no to the nuclear plan, saying only that a Dutton government would work to find a consensus. The PM also moved quickly on from questions about community resistance to renewables rollout to attack the Coalition's nuclear plan again. Dutton avoided directly endorsing the idea of climate change and whether it was getting worse, saying Queensland (for example) had always experienced extreme weather events and that he would leave it to scientists to judge whether things were worse. By contrast, the PM said the "science is very clear'" and that while not every single weather event could be said to be a result of climate change, it was certainly responsible for more extreme and more frequent events that we are seeing playing out. We had to consider the costs to the economy of not doing something about climate change, he said. When the conversation turned to the global outlook, Dutton looked surprisingly weak and Albanese convincingly confident. Dutton had to concede that he had made a mistake when he asserted on Tuesday that the Indonesian President had announced a deal with Russia to allow Russian long range military craft to be based in Indonesia. He expressed concern about the growing closeness in the relationship between China and Russia, whereas Albanese said Indonesia was an important partner, that we have an important defence relationship with our northern neighbour and that he regarded Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto as a personal friend. He attacked Dutton over his approach to the controversy in the past couple of days, instead of engaging seriously in a calibrated way and treating partners with respect. Albanese said Dutton was accusing the government of not knowing about, or responding to, something that didn't exist, and criticised him for suggesting that defence should be put on the bargaining table with US President Donald Trump. It was on the subject of Trump, however, that Mr Albanese looked his most confident, and Mr Dutton his weakest. Asked whether he trusted Trump, Dutton said "we trust the United States" and that he didn't know Donald Trump. The PM, asked the same question, said he had no reason not to trust Trump. He said the president had stuck to the terms of the agreement they had made, even if he had ultimately made a decision on tariffs which Albanese said was an act of self-harm. Similarly, he said he had no reason not to trust China's President Xi, in terms of the discussions that they have had, and noting that China was a major trading partner. Once again, Dutton said that he didn't know President Xi but believed in a strong relationship with China. Want even more? Here's where you can find all our 2025 federal election coverage The PM pointed to agreements he had reached with Xi which had resulted in $20 billion worth of trade. Dutton interjected that these were a result of a free trade agreement made with the Coalition government, but had no real answer when Albanese pointed out that the relationship with China, and significant areas of trade, had closed down during the term of the Morrison government While Dutton had conceded he had never met Trump, he continued to insist the Coalition had better contacts in Washington than Labor. Both men remain committed to AUKUS and the PM said there was no need to make a contingency plan in the case that it didn't go ahead. He criticised Dutton for suggesting the government had not made the requisite investments in AUKUS, saying it did not assist the country to try to score a political point when Labor had backed the Morrison government in its commitment to AUKUS Laura Tingle is 7.30's political editor. Having trouble seeing this form? Try this link. 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