Abbott seemed to fair pretty well at the people's forum from a completely raw perspective and seemed to give some very concise and to the point responses. However, the downside to such a forum is lack of opportunity to counter respond. Abbott was essentially able to provide answers without any challenge to detail of his policies, whether it was due to structure of forum or because people on the whole only understand the broader issues associated. The same could be said of gillards forth coming people's forum and how much credibility such a structure holds. Are they in full campaign mode? If not, it may as well be, so bring it on, I say. It is time for the australian people to witness a number of debates and moderated by the great Laurie Oakes. This is the only way we are going to gain insight into detail and flush out small talk. Question and answer responses are not good enough, we need for our leaders to face off in direct response to each others comments on policy detail. I for one would be waiting with bated breath!
With all due respect to Laurie Oakes, I have seen a 10 year old ask more in-depth questions than him. I know he is just an old media drone waiting for his “golden handshake“, so I don’t expect too much from him these days.
Have to disagree on that one.....I personally love watching his interviews, but it's a personal choice. Anyway, I'd love to see these 2 leaders go hammer and tongs with minimal intervention. I don't want to hear the small talk philosophical questioning but raw hard facts on policy.
What all our leaders need is a one on one debate with actual intellectuals and specialists. The closest thing i've seen to such an event was Richard Pearle vs Noam Chomsky. Q&A sucks arse if politicians are on it, especially when Mr Jones hijacks the question half the time. The intellectuals and specialists are simply not given enough time to debate or challenge. Complex issues deserve more than "respond quickly because i'll have to wrap it up". The other day, i watched "Future Forum" which was about immigration, it was pretty weighted in favour of immigration and population growth in general but it was five or so people talking about a single issue for about an hour. Far better and more informative.
