At the half-way point of the federal election campaign the nation's two Prime Ministerial hopefuls have locked horns for the second leaders' debate.
Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott faced-off in a town hall style meeting in front of one-hundred supposedly undecided voters in Brisbane.
As Thea Cowie, reports it was a sometimes fiery debate.
"RUDD: I've just one final point... ABBOTT: Does this guy ever shut up? RUDD: We're having a discussion mate, we're having a discussion and that is the standard debating technique when the questionings get a bit tough."
After winning the coin toss, the Prime Minister elected to make an aggressive first move.
Walking to within arms length of Tony Abbott and looking him in the eye, Mr Rudd demanded the opposition leader level with the Australian people.
"In this gathering tonight, Mr Abbott what people want to hear is where are you going to cut? Which jobs, which services, which schools are going to be cut by you because that's what you're committed to? And I think we need to have a few answers because you're way ahead in the polls, you're likely to be elected Prime Minister if there was an election today and I think people have a right to know where the cuts are going to fall."
Mr Rudd's debate tactic was to try to convince the audience an Abbott government would reveal some nasty surprises after the election.
Tony Abbott's game plan seemed to be to question Labor's fitness for government, based on its record over the past six years.
"I'll talk a lot about deficit, sure the fiscal deficit. But in the end, the biggest deficit that we've got right now is the trust deficit because the government that we've had has let too many people down too often."
Not surprisingly, the debate revolved largely around jobs and the economy, with questions on public service cuts, taxes and industrial relations.
The feud over how the Coalition plans to pay for its maternity leave scheme continued.
"Well Mr Rudd's right. It will cover about half of the scheme. But the point is it is fully costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and it is fully funded by the levy, by discontinuing the current inadequate scheme and through some consequential adjustments such as ending double dipping. RUDD: So it will mean cuts for the other half which is 2 and a half billion dollars worth of cuts to jobs health and education. That's where the maths goes. ABBOTT: This isn't true."
The issue of asylum seekers was also raised, with the leaders asked to say if they would withdraw Australia from the United Nations Refugee Convention.
Both said they would not, but were keen to talk about their deterrence policies.
"RUDD: You've got to make some hard choices and I have made those hard choices on behalf of the government which is to say very simply and very clearly and very loudly that if you are coming to Australia by boat provided by a people smuggler then you will not be able to settle in Australia. SPEERS: Mr Abbott, Josh's question is about whether you would ever withdraw from the refugees convention. ABBOTT: And the short answer is no but Josh the harshest thing, the harshest thing is to have people dying at sea because they have made a perilious journey that they just shouldn't make so the most compassionate thing that we can do as a nation is to put in place policies that stop the boats."
The issue of 457 temporary work visas for foreigners was raised again, with Kevin Rudd repeating that he backed legislation ensuring that employers advertised jobs locally before looking offshore.
Mr Abbott on the other hand came out hard in support of foreign workers.
"I don't think that people who come to this country to work and pay taxes from day one are stealing our jobs, I think they're helping to build our country. So I fully support the 457 system. Yes if there are abusers let's identify them and get rid of them but it is a good system and it's fully in accordance with the heroic tradition of this country to welcome people from the four corners of the earth who want to join our team and want to be lifters not leaners."
As for how the 100 undecided voters were leaning at the end of the debate, 37 said they would vote for Mr Abbott, 35 for Mr Rudd and 33 remained undecided.
