New Zealand general election: National, Labour TV debate

August 23, 2005

Helen Clark (Prime Minister) and Don Brash (Leader of the Opposition) have gone head-to-head in the first live televised debate between the two leaders in the New Zealand general election of 2005.

A studio audience contained equal numbers of National and Labour Party supporters.

The debate ran through tax, race relations, foreign affairs, immigration, education and health (all the key policy areas).

Taxes were at the top of the agenda; the debate was just hours after the National Party released their tax policy.

Don Brash said that the nuclear freeze policy of New Zealand (which bans nuclear powered US warships from its ports) and Helen Clark's criticism of the war in Iraq have both contributed to her failure to secure a free-trade pact with the United States.

Helen Clark was confident and aggressive and she often forced Don Brash into defensive explanations of National's policies.