Labor leader Mark McGowan has repeatedly attacked Premier Colin Barnett's planned privatisation of Western Power to stoke fears about rising electricity prices in a relatively polite leaders debate that pundits believe he won.
Premier Colin Barnett's message was to have faith at the March 11 election and stick with the strong leadership he had provided for more than eight years.
With the state a record $33 billion in debt, Mr McGowan's message was to vote for him for a fresh start and elect a Premier who would be in it for the long haul, given Mr Barnett says he will stand down during the next term.
The premier attacked Labor for making more than $4 billion in uncosted election promises but having no proper plan to deal with debt or cut costs.
He said people should have faith in his government for transforming the state during the mining boom, building or starting modern new highways, a train line to the airport and other projects.
There were no direct verbal stoushes in a debate in which the pair were asked questions by journalists, but often ignored them to repeat weeks' old election pitches, such as Mr McGowan's pledge to "put WA jobs first" and Mr Barnett's plea to have faith that WA's struggling economy is recovering and he is growing non-mining industries such as tourism and agriculture.
"By selling Western Power we lose income to the state, prices go up, it will go into foreign ownership, service standards go down, that is not a solution to the situation confronting us," Mr McGowan said.
One viewer tweeted "is Mark McGowan's plan to see how many times he can mention Western Power in the debate?".
Mr McGowan also said a re-elected government would be a "Liberal-National-One Nation" government, due to Mr Barnett's to a controversial preference swap with Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
Mr Barnett said a McGowan cabinet would be dominated by former union officials, which was not in the state's interests.
"The sort of ideas Labor put forward are minor savings if at all, absolutely minor," he said.
Mr McGowan looked vulnerable when he refused to submit billions of dollars in campaign promises to Treasury, saying the party already had a rigorous costings process.
Labor is under pressure for how it will pay for its expensive election promises such as its $2.54 billion Metronet rail plan.
However, Mr Barnett was on the defensive more often, even when he was trying to talk positively, University of Western Australia electoral analyst William Bowe said.
"I thought McGowan performed better but these debates don't happen in a vacuum and McGowan has just got a better hand to play with than Barnett does," he said.
He said Mr McGowan appeared to have "focus group sharpened lines" such as talking negatively about selling Western Power or "put WA jobs first".
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