Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer is currently taking on his Opposition counterpart, Robert McClelland, in a debate at the Press Gallery in Canberra.
Both men have delivered their opening statements. Mr Downer talked up the Government's quelling of terrorist threats in Indonesia and the Middle East, and its Sydney Declaration on climate change.
Mr McClelland attacked the Government's involvement in the Iraq war and its lack of ministerial responsibility in relation to the AWB scandal. He says that a Labor government would make Australia a leader in the fight against climate change, and regional battles against poverty and disease.
Quizzed about his professed foreign language skills and negative comments about Kevin Rudd's use of Mandarin, Mr Downer delivered a line in French about having to speak to Australians in English. Mr McClelland chuckled that he doesn't know Mandarin, "but I've eaten a few in my time." Who says election debates are dry?
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