00:01The Premier here in South Australia, Peter Malinowskis, and the opposition leader, Ashton
00:07Hearn, have just faced off at a leaders debate at Adelaide Oval, just behind me.
00:12And this debate really touched on a lot of the key topics that we've seen come up throughout
00:18this campaign.
00:19We're three weeks into a four-week campaign here in South Australia, and they were issues
00:24like housing, health, the cost of living, and also managing the state's finances and
00:30the state budget.
00:31Both of the leaders really looked to attack each other over their perceived weaknesses.
00:37For Ashton Hearn, the opposition leader, that meant going after the Premier over his failure
00:42to deliver on Labor's major 2022 election commitment to fix the ambulance ramping crisis
00:48here in South Australia.
00:49She really pushed him to apologise for that, which he did on stage before the crowd here.
00:56And for the Premier, he looked to push his opponent, Ashton Hearn, on some of the difficulties that
01:02her party's had over the last four years.
01:05She's the third leader that they've had over the last four years.
01:08And he also challenged her to explain how the Liberals would pay for all of the election
01:14commitments that they've made so far.
01:16He says that that bill has come in at over $5 billion, but the opposition leader disagreed,
01:23said that it wasn't that high, that figure was fanciful.
01:26However, she wouldn't be revealing exactly what the figure is or how the Liberals will pay
01:31until just before the election day, March 21st, next week.
01:35This debate was adjudicated by a group of judges from the SA Press Club committee.
01:41And they did have a quick meeting just after the debate to decide a winner.
01:55Ashton Hearn, who I mentioned has been leader of the Liberals here for less than 100 days.
02:01They said the Liberals are in capable hands.
02:03And of the Premier, they said he delivered equally as impressive a performance.
02:08But ultimately, they gave the win very narrowly to Peter Malinaskis, who they gave 38.25 points
02:15out of a possible 50.
02:16They gave Ashton Hearn slightly a lower score, 36 points out of 50.
02:22So early voting here in South Australia does start tomorrow.
02:26This was the last opportunity that both leaders had to put their pitch to voters in South Australia
02:34before they start heading to the polls on Saturday.
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