COMMENT:
Audrey Young
Winner: Judith Collins
National Party leader Judith Collins had a much harder job than Jacinda Ardern in the first leaders' debate.
Election 2020: The Verdict - Who won the debate? Our political experts have their say
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Opinion by Audrey Young,Simon Wilson,Claire Trevett,Fran O'Sullivan
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Collins, who started off wounded from a poor poll result tonight
and a $4 billion accounting error in her party's fiscal plan, had to win points against a polished and popular Prime Minister.
Collins didn't exactly trounce Ardern but, with few exceptions, she made an impact on issues such as infrastructure, technology, skills and training and agriculture, and she owned the issue of housing.
She resisted wise-cracking, stayed focused and showed some energy for a change. "I'm a fighter. I never give up," she said at the outset.
Ardern sounded as though she had swallowed too many press statements in many of the segments.
But she beat Collins hands down on the issue of child poverty, explaining how National's sloganeering is wrong in fact. "I'm not done on child poverty," she said and clearly meant it.
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On Covid management, Collins failed to land a blow. Ardern was unassailable on the issue and that may count most in the end.
Simon Wilson
Winner: Jacinda Ardern
People say they want the real Judith Collins back, by which they mean someone ferocious, but why would she give us that? It's not an election winner, especially in the age of the power of kindness. So Collins tried to show us she's a decent person too, only sharper and smarter and better in every way. It's the right thing for her to do.
She started with a grin, all the teeth. And kept on with it, except for those moments when the sideways sneer came out. All Jacinda Ardern needed to do was stay the course. So she gave us her earnest self, animated from time to time when she talked about building more houses or working with farmers on emissions.
Collins needed to change the narrative. She produced more data points but it didn't change anything.
A win to Ardern, who ended strongly on core emotional values and didn't get knocked off course.
Claire Trevett
Winner: Judith Collins
Judith Collins had a lot to prove and Jacinda Ardern had nothing to prove so the jobs of the two leaders were different.
Both managed to defend their policy positions but Collins, having started by declaring "I'm a fighter", turned up with energy and a willingness to actually debate.
When it wasn't her turn to talk, her eyebrows, eye rolls and snorts did the job instead.
Ardern treated it as a chance to simply go through a check-list of policies and achievements. Given her incumbency advantages it was all she needed to do — but it was not the most satisfying viewing.
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Ardern also fell into the trap of repeated use of jargon such as "infrastructure deficits", "pipelines" and "double-duty infrastructure", and reeling off the technical names of Government programmes.
Both Collins and Ardern had clangers: Collins could have done without mentioning her second property was owned by her trust, while Ardern's faux pas was her dismissal of Collins' reference to her childhood on a dairy farm as "a view of the world that's passed".
Fran O'Sullivan
Winner: Judith Collins
Judith Collins initially lacked savoir faire and even her trademark punch.
But she got her mojo back when Jacinda Ardern said she "shouldn't get a tax cut". "Well give it back," she smirked raising both eyebrows in unison.
A spectacular run of own goals over National's "helicopter cash" tax cuts and a crushing showing in TVNZ's latest 1 News Colmar Brunton poll should have put her on the back foot.
But Collins got her points across, clearly differentiating National's policy suite from that of Labour.
Ardern appeared to coast. Far too much.
She talked about the challenges "the world faces" before swiftly correcting herself to say "and indeed New Zealand". A reminder, here. This is a New Zealand election you are contesting, PM.
With the challenges in front of us, these leaders should have been more thoroughly tested.
Ardern needs to show she wants the crown and why and display some passion.
But for getting out of the blocks and putting on a calm reasoned show, I give the debate to Collins.
In an unscientific poll the Herald asked readers who won tonight's debate.
By 9.30pm 22,116 people had responded.
Judith Collins picked up 54 per cent of the vote, or 11,966 votes. Jacinda Ardern picked up 40 per cent of the vote, or 8949 votes.
Meanwhile, 5 per cent of voters, or 1199 votes, thought it was a draw.
