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August 21st, 2013 
Kevin Rudd v Tony Abbott debate. Picture: Darren England.
Source: News Limited
ANY hope Kevin Rudd was going to be Mr Positivity tonight was short lived but his attacks on Tony Abbott did appear to put the Opposition Leader on the back foot, at least at the start of the Courier Mail People’s Forum.
The Prime Minister narrowly won the night on Twitter, just scraping into a positive average for the hour of 50.65, compared to Mr Abbott, whose average sentiment rating was 45.32.
After a brief bout of sunshine in his opening address the Prime Minister returned to his theme of Mr Abbott wanting to make “$70 billion in cuts”, sending the Opposition Leader’s sentiment rating plummeting 40 points to a dire 18 (sentiment is rated from 1-100, with anything below 50 negative and above positive).
The first question, from human services student Kelly was a gift to Mr Rudd, addressing “rumours” Mr Abbott wanted to make cuts to public services funding, which sparked spirited debate between the two leaders over the definition of cuts.
Sentiment on both men dipped during this debate, as people commented on Mr Rudd appearing “angry” and Mr Abbott appearing “nervous”.
Mr Abbott allowed his frustration to get the better of him during a discussion of his pet Paid Parental Leave plan, saying of Mr Rudd: “Does this guy ever shut up?”
This attracted a lot of comment but didn’t significantly affect Mr Abbott’s rating.
Forum participant Chris stuck a blow with his question to Mr Abbott: “What’s your version of WorkChoices going to be called?”
The Opposition Leader repeated his “dead, buried, cremated” line about the industrial relations policy that helped bring down John Howard, and his sentiment rating during that discussion was also pretty dead.
The tables were turned, however, during the discussion on asylum seekers, when Mr Rudd’s rating went down.
Questions on conservation, the 457 skilled visa scheme and the building industry didn’t strike any major differences.
But the final question on gay marriage allowed both leaders to differentiate their positions, with somewhat predictable results on Twitter.
The Voice of Australia Poll Pulse tracks the positive and negative sentiment about our political leaders on Twitter. It is powered by the world’s leading social media tracking service Topsy.
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