I just watched it through, that was a fascinating discussion moderated by David Speers. It was a little amateur overall in the content offered by the candidates, but I suppose only 20% of them have any real experience interfacing with that sort of pressure. I was disappointed that Tony Abbott wasn't able to take the discussion by the scruff of the neck and shut down a lot of the dissent that was coming from pretty much the entire panel, given his obvious Presence as an ex-PM and his experience in the milieu.
The Greens candidate was out of her depth.
The Labor candidate had to keep pivoting to a Federal change of government as the main motivation for voters. Well trained but when you are 33/1 in a field of four, you need to have more charisma than this guy does.
I was quite impressed with the other independent candidate, an indigenous lady who had a bit of presence about her and was speaking holistically. Unfortunately her short-priced her independent counterpart has a bit too much momentum and standing for her.
Zali Steggall showed some very large inadequacies in her delivery today. She certainly has enough front and presence to beat Tony Abbott, but the typical lack of grounding independents have in 'the numbers' let her down a little when she was pushed by the moderator. She is rolling through, though, and if she is able to look comfortable fending off specific questions about targets and numbers and is allowed to speak in general terms, she is over the line.
Tony Abbott was quite disappointing overall. I think his problem is that he has lost his confidence. For some of the time he looked a bit like a schoolboy sitting on the bench hoping he wouldn't be the last one picked. He started way, way back on the back foot when the first port of call was local transport infrastructure. It really did prove awfully hard to explain why after 25 years as the community's leader - and sometime Prime Minister - he couldn't deliver what he is still touting for this election. The other candidates did make the most of it.
I thought Mr Abbott was very strong when he was talking about coal as a base-load power option. He at least looked like he felt comfortable and in control, and prepared to own his conservative (not a pun) number for emissions. The rest of the panel of candidates tended to flip-flop and try to outdo each other, part of the problem I expect with there being 5 candidates in the electorate and 4 of them are jockeying for position on what appears to be one of the top 3 issues for Warringah.
If Mr Abbott has smart people around him, he can win Warringah, and reasonably comfortably. But he has to do what is needed in order to win. Is he capable of that? His faction has shown that they are more than prepared to lose an election as long as they get to define the playing field. I wonder if Mr Abbott is willing to bet his political life on that sort of tactic.
Watch that space, it is going to be amazingly entertaining for the entire country, no matter which team you barrack for
