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Auspol

Scott Morrison And Bill Shorten's Latest Encounter Was More Playground Fight Than Political Debate

Alright you two, take it behind the gym after school.

There have been two leaders’ debates between Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten so far and based on what we’ve seen, it’s turning into less of a series of political debates between two (supposed) adults and more like a playground fight between two brats.

The first debate was held on April 29 and it was amicable enough with only a dash of tension as the two political leaders went head-to-head on a bunch of topics including climate change, wages growth, franking credits, immigration, Clive Palmer, and border security.

All in all it wasn’t too bad. Both had their strong and weak moments, with Morrison swaying the audience with his questioning of the cost of Labor’s climate change policies while Shorten performed well on climate change in general and by highlighting the Coalition’s preference deal with Clive Palmer.

In the end, Bill sneaked out a win with 25 of the 48 audience members voting for him, 12 voting for Morrison, and 11 remaining on the fence.

As for the recent second leaders’ debate? Hoo boy, now there was a bit of drama as both Morrison and Shorten took body blows at each other on issues such as tax plans, mental health, education, religion, and climate change.

This debate was more of a people’s forum setting compared to the first one and things started off fairly tamely as both men were on roughly the same page on the issues of domestic violence, policing, sexual assaults, and mental health, pledging to devote more resources to those issues.

To be honest, it was a pretty uninteresting affair for the most part. But the debate got heated towards the end when the topic of Morrison’s much-touted tax plan – massive personal income tax cuts for higher earners, basically – came up and things started resembling a scrap on a Kindergarten playground.

As Morrison tried to avoid answering how much these tax cuts would cost, Shorten decided to take a jab at the current PM by scribbling “$77 billion” onto a scrap of piece of paper and holding it to the camera triumphantly.

Clearly flustered after Shorten’s little showcase and the subsequent giggles from the audience, Morrison tried to claw some momentum back by whipping out a move from the schoolyard bully playbook – the “space invader”.

For those who are unaware, it’s a move in which one person tries to intimidate the other by stepping into their personal space and trying to frighten them into submission.

Morrison tried the tactic by stepping into Shorten’s space while grilling him about something. However, Shorten was having none of it and responded by actually stepping back towards Morrison before calling the move out by smirking and saying, “you’re a classic space invader,” which the audience absolutely lapped up.

You know you got a good burn in when even the moderator of the debate couldn’t help but chuckle at the remark.

All in all, that was probably the biggest moment of the hour-long debate and Shorten ultimately won over the 109 undecided voters in the audience with 43%, while Morrison scored 41% and the rest remain undecided.

After two debates, it’s probably safe to say that things are getting pretty testy between Morrison and Shorten. While a third debate isn’t confirmed, the ABC and Nine have offered to host future head-to-heads between the two men.

Should Morrison and Shorten agree to a third debate, things are almost certainly going escalate further beyond the “space invader” moment based on how the first two debates unfolded.

All we’re saying is don’t be surprised if the loser gets dacked and given a swirly at the end of it.