EXCLUSIVE Unseen moment from Channel Seven's election 2025 leaders' debate where the worm turned in FAVOUR of Peter Dutton over Anthony Albanese
Peter Dutton 's strong stance on China impressed the audience of 60 undecided voters during Sunday night's leaders' debate on Channel Seven, unseen footage has revealed.
While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won the overall vote and trounced the Opposition Leader on cost of living and tax cuts, Mr Dutton did well in several key areas, winning on Indigenous Affairs and Defence.
And now it can be revealed that 'The Pulse' - formerly known as 'The Worm', which tracks live viewer sentiment - spiked in favour of Mr Dutton when he was discussing how to approach China.
'The biggest concern from our intelligence agencies and our defence agencies is in relation to the Communist Party of China,' Mr Dutton said.
'They are worried about the conflict in our region, and what that will do to impact on our trade and what it will do to our own security settings and what we would need to do to respond to, say, a cyber attack on our country.'
While he was speaking, 'The Pulse' lifted noticeably in favour of the Opposition Leader.
'It was an extremely dramatic change in the pulse - we couldn't believe it,' a Seven insider said.
'If Dutton wants to know how to move the polls, he and his team will be studying The Pulse forensically.'
Meanwhile, Mr Albanese was less hawkish on China, maintaining the country's importance as a trading partner for Australia.
It is perhaps no surprise that viewers were impressed with the Opposition Leader's position on China, given they awarded him victory when it came to defence.
Around 43 per cent of the undecided audience backed him on defence, compared to 37 per cent for the Prime Minister, while 20 per cent were undecided.
One of the undecided viewers told Channel Seven that he marked Mr Albanese down for his position on China.
'The one slipping point for Albanese is he prevaricated about saying China when we all know that China is probably the biggest conflict with our own interests in our region and in the world,' the undecided voter said.
The Coalition have sought to portray Labor as weak on China, especially in light of the Chinese naval vessels recently circumnavigating Australia's coast in a show of strength.
The situation dramatically worsened when th navy ships started conducting unauthorised live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea.
It forced the rerouting of commercial flights, many of which were flying in and out of Sydney.
The Prime Minister has also been accused of 'ducking and weaving' on the subject of whether Russia was pressurising Indonesia into building a long-range military airbase there - and when he knew about it.
Specialist defence publication Janes reported that Moscow had requested permission to base military aircraft at Manuhua Air Force Base north of Papua, only 1,300 kilometres from Darwin.
The government has repeatedly refused to comment on the issue but a report by The Australian on Monday revealed they had been made aware of the request in February.
While Mr Dutton won the Channel Seven debate on the subject of defence and Indigenous Affairs, he was soundly defeated in the hot takes/ rapid fire section, with 50 per cent backing Albanese and just 14 per cent for the Opposition Leader.
And, in the most important result of the night, the Mr Albanese was streets ahead.
Half of undecided viewers – 50 per cent – preferred Mr Albanese as prime minister, while Mr Dutton only had the support of 25 per cent of them.
The same figure were undecided.
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