Hey, did you know there was a “leaders’ debate” on Friday night here in Victoria?
From the intro:
This year, Victorian Labor seeks a record fourth term. The opinion polls are tight, and this time there’s a new player, the Greens, that may have the final say on which of the two main parties can form government…
So, uh – why are they not permitted to participate in the “debate”? Where was the News Ltd whinging about “scrutiny” on this one?
ELSEWHERE: Conscience Votes covers the debate in more detail. Including this:
Baillieu repeated the ‘more police on streets, zero tolerance’ mantra, then added a potentially worrying coda. Police needed to be given the capacity and powers to enforce the law. He didn’t elaborate on exactly what that might entail, but given the new move-on and stop-and-search powers, one can speculate. On his first day in government, he concluded, he would institute tougher sentencing and do away with home detention.
Why? Because we want to use a more expensive system (jail) that is far less effective at rehabilitating people? We want to spend more money making the problem of crime worse? Brilliant.
Labor can have my preferences again.
Moved On 
Thanks for the mention!
It really was a waste of an hour’s debating time. No issues of substance were covered, and the absence of a Greens candidate led to an amazing level of awkwardness from everyone concerned – which is why I think the moderator pointed out that future debates might look very different.
Can’t come soon enough.
Leaders debate?What leaders, I didn’t see any leaders.I did see a couple of over paid public servants who would save Victoria some money if they both got jobs selling used cars.They both should be in actors equity.
Same old hackneyed rhetoric and platitudes,Yep I was nearly in tears their speeches were up there with ‘I have a dream’ Ásk not what your country etc etc I am being ill recollecting the shite.
There will be no change in Victoria, the people will be killing each other in the rush to vote for the same old, same old.
Yep the Greens can only win from this debate, it shows just how shallow both of them are.