Rudd lands killer blow to Abbott in the Great Debate.
Source: Australian Financial Review
Kevin Rudd has kept alive his election hopes with a hard fought debate against Tony Abbott in which he dominated and landed a knock out blow to Tony Abbott. Kevin Rudd was also chosen the winner by a group of undecided voters. In the one and only head-to-head debate between the two Leaders before the September 7 election, Mr Rudd made one promise- a conscience vote on legalising gay marriage within the first 100 days of the new Parliament- while Mr Abbott to not rule out changes to the GST as part of the white paper on tax reform he will commission if elected Prime Minister. The GST is on the table and is part of the equation Mr Abbott insisted, prompting Mr Rudd to ask Mr Abbott why he is hell bent on increasing the GST to 20 per cent. After the debate, the Channel Nine worm, which was controlled by a weighted sample of 100 undecided voters, and which was mostly favourable to Mr Rudd throughout, awarded Mr Rudd the debate 59 per cent to 41 per cent.
"This election is about a clear choice on the economy, on jobs, on how we support families under pressure and how we support education and health," Mr Rudd proclaimed.
"We are a great country but we can't afford a Coalition government because of toxic cuts to the bone against health, education, the public service and welfare",added Mr Rudd.