The official social media accounts of the Coalition named Peter Dutton as the winner of Tuesday night’s leaders’ debate, despite Anthony Albanese securing more support from undecided voters on the Sky News panel. Although Albanese won 44 votes out of 100 at the Wentworthville leagues club in western Sydney, Dutton won 35 votes, with 21 people remaining undecided. Despite no major missteps from either leader, multiple social media accounts of the Liberal National party and the Nationals declared Dutton the victor even before the official results were announced by Sky News.
The debate concluded at 8:30 pm, the same time the Coalition released long-awaited modeling on their gas plan, which Dutton had not discussed in detail up until then. Just three minutes later, the LNP posted on Facebook congratulating Dutton as the “Sky News debate WINNER,” with a photo of him and the words “Sky News debate WINNER!” The LNP, a separate entity that operates in conjunction with but independently from the Liberals and Nationals, is based in Queensland, Dutton’s home state.
The National Party of Australia also posted on Facebook stating Dutton was the “winner of the debate.” This confused many, as they questioned how the victory was determined and pointed out that the post was made before any media outlet reported Dutton as the winner.
Supporters of Dutton praised his performance on social media, while others questioned the claim that he won, noting that Sky News had declared Albanese the winner. The official Liberal party accounts did not publish the claim that Dutton won the debate.
After 9 pm, once the debate result was announced by Sky, Labor’s official national Facebook page posted that Albanese had won the first debate with Labor’s plan to build Australia’s future. Labor’s Western Australian Facebook page also published a graphic stating “ALBO WINS leaders debate” at the same time. Both major parties used the debate to create considerable social media content, including live-tweeting the debate and sharing statistics and policies they wanted to highlight. The Nationals and the Liberal party created bingo cards for the debate that included criticisms of Albanese, and Labor published a “verdict from the first leaders’ debate” contrasting Albanese against Dutton on various aspects. Labor posted clips of the leaders discussing health and Medicare policy on TikTok, while the Liberal TikTok account posted a video accusing Albanese of lying.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/09/election-leaders-debate-winner-albanese-social-media-posts-congratulate-peter-dutton
