With seven weeks left until voters go to the polls, there was little to be gained by "winning" the peoples' forum at Windsor RSL. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Andrew Meares It was airing on low-rating subscription channel Sky News on a Friday night - up against the footy at one end of the cultural spectrum and Eurovision at the other. This wasn't the Bronx, let alone off-Broadway. It was a practice run in public view. Outside the club, it was rowdy. A group of anti-Badgerys Creek protesters waved placards ("Birds not Boeings") and chanted loudly, forcing the leaders to enter through the back door. Inside, it had the energy of a nursing home. Many of the mostly grey-haired patrons looked rather bemused by the invasion of journalists and other political hangers on.

"I am here to win a raffle," Joe Turner, an RSL regular and retired Pitt Town police officer, said when asked why he had come to the debate. Anti-Badgerys Creek protesters forced the leaders to enter through the back door. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The 100 audience members themselves were carefully selected: all had declared themselves undecided voters in recent Galaxy polls. As for the questions, it was a whole other story. Whoever put up their hand could ask a question; Sky News had no idea what was coming. Credit:Andrew Meares

Unlike the ABC's Q&A, which approves most audience questions before broadcast, this was a free-wheeling affair. Whoever put up their hand could ask a question; Sky News had no idea what was coming. This created a sense of risk and excitement, but it also posed problems. Like when one questioner asked about the not quite hot button issue of extraditions to Bosnia. Meanwhile, in another reminder we were far from Ultimo, asylum seekers, climate change and same-sex marriage didn't get a look-in. Is this as good as it's going to get? Credit:Andrew Meares Unlike Duncan Storrar, none of the questioners are likely to be thrust into the national spotlight. Which, given how that worked out for him, is probably just as well. Attacking Labor's policy of scrapping negative gearing for existing dwellings, Turnbull talked up a mining-tax style campaign by the nation's real estate agents.

"The real estate agents are all as one - they know Labor's policy will lower home values and jack up rates," he said. Shorten responded that he was sticking up for first home buyers against the "vested interests" in the property industry. Then, when asked about misbehaviour in the banking sector, Turnbull berated Shorten for saying it was time to "put the banks in the dock". It's one thing to "lecture" banks about ethics, as Turnbull had, but a step too far to compare them to criminals. This went down like a fart in a lift with the crowd, who burst into applause at the idea of the banks being in the dock.

And it allowed Shorten to deliver the most well-received line of the night to Turnbull: "I bet they just went home and changed their practices after a lecture from you." It was almost enough to give zingers a good name. The questions - from privatisation to multinational tax - favoured Shorten right until the end, when the issue of the nation's ballooning deficit was raised. This allowed Turnbull to finish on a strong note, hammering the Howard government's record at reducing debt. Loading Still, 42 of the audience members opted for Shorten, compared to 29 for Turnbull. Another 29 were undecided.

Turnbull didn't win, but he didn't crash and burn either. And that, for now, was good enough.