Sky News was not at all pleased Malcolm Turnbull turned down a long-standing invitation to debate Bill Shorten at the people’s forum in Brisbane on Wednesday evening.
So displeased they unleashed presenters Paul Murray and Andrew Bolt to slam him for his snub.
Murray told viewers Turnbull had always been open to a second people’s forum and he had the email trail to prove it.
.@PMOnAir reveals the timeline of communication between Sky News and @LiberalAus about a Brisbane forum #ausvotes https://t.co/NcLiCCLo7h
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 7, 2016
Bolt has even suggested Turnbull is punishing Sky for hiring Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin.
Whatever his reasons, on Tuesday the prime minister rejected the invitation, saying it had been a “decree” from Sky News and anyway he preferred the third election debate to be “innovative”, that is, on Facebook with news.com.au. There has already been one people’s forum and a debate at the National Press Club.
Rubbing salt into the wound, just hours before the planned people’s forum in Queensland, 7.30 host Leigh Sales triumphantly announced Turnbull would be her special guest live in the ABC studios instead. “Cancel your evening plans and stay in,” Sales urged on Twitter.
Turnbull had refused to answer voters’ questions face-to-face in Queensland, preferring to spend an evening at the ABC with Sales.
And so the scene was set for an election debate in which not only was the opposition leader left to debate himself in a leagues club in a marginal seat in front of a TV audience of less than 50,000, but now he was going head-to-head with the prime minister on another higher-rating channel.
There can be no doubt the ABC’s 7.30 program came up trumps in the ratings stakes as pay television enjoys just a fraction of the viewers who tune into the public broadcaster. But it was Shorten who won the night in the election debate stakes, and not just for simply for turning up.
“I’m sorry that my opponent chose not to be here tonight,’’ he told the punters. “I think Queenslanders do deserve to hear both points of view.”
Turnbull certainly won no plaudits for choosing to stay in Sydney, with constant quips from Shorten about how he wished Malcolm was there. Many in the room appeared to agree. One voter, Richard, said he was “sorely disappointed” that Turnbull wasn’t there and said that Bill seemed like a really nice guy.
Shorten made the most of the clear run he was given, answering 17 questions, mainly with ease. This was a grassroots forum of which he was the master.
There could be no winner as it was a contest of one, but Sky news said 57% of audience members said they were more likely to vote Labor, 16% were less likely to vote Labor and 27% were still undecided.
That would be a win for Shorten in anyone’s books, especially while Turnbull was being grilled by Sales over on the ABC and not picking up too many points for his efforts, especially the unwise “I’m not interested in polls” comment.
Turnbull did go head-to-head with Bill Shorten on Wednesday night after all – they just weren’t in the same state or appearing on the same network.
