Did you watch on Friday night when PM Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten went at it live via Facebook? It’s a sign of the times when political debates between party leaders appear alongside your Aunt Judy’s love of all things homeopathic. Sadly, no worm was involved, but there were graphs — well, a graph — and it wasn’t doing the Prime Minister any favours.
The debate, conducted from Facebook’s Sydney headquarters, had “reached” 1.6 million people by 8:15pm yesterday, according to News.com.au — which acted as moderator.
Statistics from News.com.au suggest the debate garnered some 37,000 comments, as well as and 3000 potential questions (gathered in advance). At the time of writing, the final video has over 455,000 views (autoplay warning).
The live audience for the debate was composed of 30 floating voters from marginal electorates. At the conclusion, the audience scored each leader, with Shorten receiving 17 votes and Turnbull 7. I know that adds up to 24 — I’m assuming the rest remained unconvinced.
Still, not a great result for the PM.
Despite the opposition leader’s apparent victory, the real prize goes to one Reezy Miller for this pearl of a tweet (via The Guardian):
Oh, the irony … Malcolm’s buffering as he talks up the #NBN #LeadersDebate pic.twitter.com/3TzOGSkhm6
— Reezy Miller (@Trixie_Boo) June 17, 2016
And finally, a bonus image straight from Facebook. Those Twitter account names can be hard to wrangle.