Seven moderator Mark Riley vows to use ‘whip’ on Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese if needed to achieve ‘engagement and real debate’
, and will feature a so-called Pub Test to determine the winner, using a panel of 150 undecided voters who will judge the debate and cast their votes live from pubs in seven marginal seats around the country.
The seats are Macquarie in NSW, Chisholm in Victoria, Lilley in Queensland, Boothby in South Australia, Hasluck in Western Australia, Solomon in the Northern Territory and Bass in Tasmania.Riley hopes to produce something that is “worthwhile to viewers who’ve been making up their mind which way to go”.
“They’re here to debate not berate,” Riley said on Seven’s Sunrise. “Voters want to hear about their policies, not their put-downs. This is about the highest office in the land. It’s not a game of marbles. I think they’ll get that after the weekend. I mean, the spectacle of Sunday night didn’t shine well on either of them. I think they understand that. But you know, if they do it again, I’ll get the whip and the chair out and stop it.
“They’ll be given time to do that,” he said. “I won’t be cutting them off mid-sentence. They’ll finish their thoughts. And then after they’ve answered those questions, there’ll be a time for engagement and real debate after that in a civil way, we hope, so voters can get an idea about the differences in their policy positions, the differences in their characters, the differences in their vision for the country. That’s what’s important.
The West Australian’s federal political editor Lanai Scarr will also get the chance to ask a few questions and analyse the debate in a special edition of Seven News with Michael Usher. It will cross live to the marginal seats for the Pub Test.