Key events
Who is moderating tonight’s debate, and what are the rules?
Tonight’s debate will be hosted by Sunrise’s Natalie Barr and moderated by 7News political editor Mark Riley. Here are the ground rules for the showdown:
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The debate will run for one hour.
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Both leaders will have one uninterrupted minute to make their opening and closing statements.
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A 30-second countdown timer will be on-screen to keep everything on track but microphones will stay on with no interruptions.
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The debate will centre on six key questions for each leader before going into a “rapid-fire” round where Albanese and Dutton will give quick yes/no or short answers.
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Viewer-submitted questions will also be included, gathered from both the broadcast and 7News’ online audiences.
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Each leader will have one minute to respond to each of the first six questions, with the order of responses rotating to ensure fairness.
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Albanese and Dutton will then face off for four minutes and will be able to directly ask each other questions — all moderated by Riley.
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The leaders will then close out the debate with a one-minute final pitch to voters.
No winner will be declared as part of the debate broadcast, however a show afterwards – The Verdict – will decide a winner based on a studio audience of 60 undecided voters. They have been independently selected by Roy Morgan.
Welcome to the final leaders’ debate
Emily Wind
Good evening, and welcome to the final leaders’ debate of the federal election campaign, with less than a week to go until polling day. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through all of the action tonight.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will go head-to-head in one more televised debate on 7News, kicking off just after 8pm AEST tonight.
The showdown will be broadcast on Seven’s free-to-air channel as well as on catch-up service 7plus. Viewers can also stream it on 7NEWS.com.au. We will also be bringing you all the highlights from the debate right here on our live blog.
The debate will be moderated by 7News’ political editor, Mark Riley, and hosted at Seven’s studios in Sydney.
There will be no winner declared as part of the debate broadcast – instead, a studio audience of 60 undecided voters will give their verdicts post-debate. We’ll have more details on how the debate will play out shortly.
