LIVE: Election 2025 – Ruthless moment Ally Langdon takes a brutal swipe at Albo AND Peter Dutton during Nine’s debate

The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader were arguing over who was best at balancing the country’s finances.

Mr Albanese was laying into the Coalition’s nuclear policy, claiming Mr Dutton was ‘just not being fair dinkum’ about how much it will all cost.

But host Ally Langdon cut in with a dressing down for the ages.

‘I just want to say there that I’m not sure that anyone at home is feeling that like either of you are being fiscally responsible at the moment,’ she told both leaders.

‘And we’re really concerned about the level of debt we’re going to be leaving our grandkids.’

The gloves are finally off!

The first two debates were very polite, some might say overly so.

But there’s been no messing around tonight.

Both leaders were talking over one another about the previous Coalition government’s record on education and health.

‘You couldn’t lie straight in bed. Honestly, this is unbelievable,’ Mr Dutton fumed at the PM.

Mr Albanese shot back: ‘You can go to abuse’, adding: ‘That’s a sign of desperation, Peter. Frankly.’

But the Opposition Leader was not finished.

‘Lying, that’s a sign of desperation,’ he hit back.

‘Go to the 2014 budget papers. People can do that online. It’s all available for all to see.’

Host Ally Langdon was forced to intervene, noting she had given both men a ‘fair bit of latitude’.

Watch the fiery excahnge below:

It’s a split decision from the Channel Nine panel – but it will go to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton by majority.

2GB host Deb Knight names Mr Dutton the winner, as does Nine’s Chief Political Commentator Charles Croucher.

While the AFR’s Phil Coorey said Mr Dutton won on a ‘number of fronts’, he gave it to Mr Albanese by ‘half a per cent’.

‘I just think that loss of composure at the start will be used against him and it will just reinforce negative perceptions that people already don’t like him have,’ Mr Coorey explained.

‘So in cold, hard, brutal political terms, I’ll give it to Albanese by a nose, but more for Dutton slip than anything.’

Mr Coorey was, of course, referring to the fiery moment Mr Dutton told the PM: ‘You couldn’t lie straight in bed’.

After all the mud-slinging, Ally Langdon asked each man to describe three nice things about the other.

The number prompts laughter, with Mr Albanese joking: ‘I only ever prepare for one.’

The PM said his rival ‘bats way above his average’ with his wife Kirilly. He also praised his ‘terrific family and his longevity in politics.

Meanwhile, Mr Dutton praised the PM’s son, Nathan, who he described as a ‘great young bloke’ and his fiancée, Jodie.

He also said he admitted the PM’s support of the AUKUS submarine deal from opposition.

2GB radio’s Deb Knight asked the Prime Minister what he made of opposition attacks describing him as ‘too soft’ and ‘wishy-washy’.

‘Do we need more of a hard man as a leader?’, Ms Knight added.

‘It’s just rhetoric. Kindness isn’t weakness,’ Mr Albanese responded.

‘Kindness is something that I was raised with. We’ve. We raise our children to be compassionate with each other.’

The PM insisted he was capable of making ‘tough decisions’ but Ms Knight asked how effective kindness was when dealing with totalitarian leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian despot Vladmir Putin.

Mr Albanese insisted that he’d ‘repaired the relationship (with China) without compromising any of Australia’s values’.

The Opposition Leader has defended his claim he could secure a better deal from Donald Trump on tariffs – despite no world leader managing to do so.

‘I dealt with the Obama administration as a senior minister. I dealt with the Trump Mark one administration as a senior minister,’ he said.

He also claimed to have dealt ‘intimately with the Biden administration’.

‘We’d negotiated the AUKUS submarine deal, which no other country had been able to do since the 1950s.’

Mr Dutton also took aim at the Prime Minister’s ‘captain’s pick’ for ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

‘Mr Rudd is in there, can’t get a phone call with the with the with the with the president cannot even get into the West Wing,’ he added.

Read more about Mr Rudd’s troubles in the US below:

Both Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton were in furious agreement about not making any changes to negative gearing.

Negative gearing is where investor landlords can claim a rental loss against their taxable income.

Even if they don’t make a loss, they can claim expenses from interest payments to council rates and property maintenance so they can reduce their total taxable income.

‘We’re not going to change the capital gains tax discount. We’re not going to change negative gearing,’ Mr Dutton told the Great Debate.

The Prime Minister was in agreement, claiming is administration was ‘concentrating on… supply’.

‘We won’t be making the changes that you suggest, because we’re concerned that it would have a negative impact on supply and would push up rents,’ Mr Albanese added.

A Current Affair host Ally Langdon has issued a stark warning to both leaders.

They will have 60 seconds to answer each question posed by the panellists, Nine’s chief political editor Charles Croucher, 2GB radio’s Deb Knight and Phil Coorey, the respected political editor of the Australian Financial Review.

‘Both leaders have agreed to keep their answers to 60 seconds, which is plenty of time – if you give straight answers,’ she told both men.

She added: ‘We don’t want this to be a regurgitation of talking points. We want honest to the point answers.’

The Opposition Leader is being supported by two of his three children at the third leaders’ debate on Channel Nine.

‘So thankful to have Tom and Bec joining me tonight for the third leaders’ debate,’ Mr Dutton posted on X alongside a selfie of the trio (pictured, below).

‘I’ll be sharing my plan to get Australia back on track — I hope you can tune in.’

It marks a rare appearance for Mr Dutton’s other two children.

Harry, 20, has already joined his father on the campaign trail where he spoke about the difficulty of saving to buy a house.

Read more about the very different lives of the two leaders’ children below:

There was no clear winner – and no knockout punches – in the last debate on the ABC, moderated by Insiders host David Speers.

The Prime Minister failed to answer a simple question on power prices four times, while the Opposition Leader cracked a schoolyard taunt and apologised over comments he’d made about Russia’s alleged plans to instal a military base in Indonesia.

However, the first debate did have a winner.

The Sky News/Daily Telegraph People’s Forum heard questions from an audience of 100 undecided voters, picked by an independent polling company.

The majority 44 – judged Mr Albanese the winner, while only 35 were convinced by Mr Dutton.

The remaining 21 were undecided.

Read Peter Van Onselen’s peerless analysis of that first debate below:

The Home Affairs Minister said he was grateful there had been a brief pause in campaigning today following the death of Pope Francis.

And he added that those expecting fireworks in tonight’s debate on Channel Nine would likely be disappointed.

‘While the debate still going ahead, the tone of it is certainly, we can expected to be a bit more subdued,’ Mr Burke told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

Host Patricia Karvelas asked him if he thought the gloves might come off.

But Mr Burke rejected the media’s disappointment about a lack of ‘knockout punches’ in the previous two debates.

‘You don’t get knockout punches in these sorts of debates,’ he said.

‘What you get is a chance for the Australian people to get a better sense of where the leaders are coming from and what their plans are at a time when cost of living is such an issue with the Australian community.’

Channel Nine executives will have their fingers crossed that the Home Affairs Minister has his predictions all wrong.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Teal MP Monique Ryan, who bangs on about ‘integrity and transparency’.

First it was the embarrassing episode involving her husband ripping down a rival’s election poster.

Then it was getting publicly rejected by a satirical drag artist poking fun at the Liberal Party – which you can read about here.

Now, it’s refusing to answer questions on live TV. You can watch the full, excruciating exchange below.

So much for transparency, eh?

The Prime Minister announced a pause to his election campaigning on Tuesday, as a mark of respect following the death of Pope Francis.

Instead, Mr Albanese attended mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, while the Opposition Leader also attended a church service, commenting: ‘Today’s not the day for big politicking’.

But the PM will be desperate to avoid a historical parallel involving another Labor leader who was also ahead in the polls but altered his campaign plans late in the day after the death of a major figure.

In 2019, Bill Shorten abandoned his campaign plans after the death of legendary Prime Minister and former Labor leader Bob Hawke.

Mr Shorten spent the last evening of the campaign drinking beer in a Melbourne pub with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and former Premier Steve Bracks.

Meanwhile, his political rival, Scott Morrison, embarked on a whirlwind, last-minute tour of five marginal seats across three states.

And we all know how that turned out.

Mr Albanese will no doubt be keen to avoid his own ‘Hillary moment’ – and will be hoping for another strong showing during tonight’s debate.