Staged in Perth and hosted by the Seven Network and The West Australian newspaper, the debate wasn't considered important enough by Seven to air on its main channel.
Instead, it was outranked by Seven's long-running soap* Home and Away and reality T-V program House Rules and was consequently pushed to the secondary Seven Two channel, squeezed between episodes of Bargain Hunt and the Vicar of Dibley.
There were no signs either Scott Morrison or Bill Shorten were taking the debate lightly though, with the pair clashing over a number issues, including the Coalition's deal with Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, climate change, franking credits and trust.
Of the 48 undecided voters in the room for the debate, a majority marked Mr Shorten as the victor on the night.
