Labor leader Bill Shorten has won the first leaders’ debate according to a count of the audience’s undecided voters.

According to 7news.com.au Mr Shorten got the nod from 25 of the 48 undecided voters, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison only got 12 votes. However, there were still 11 people undecided after the debate.

Both leaders were given three minutes for an opening address with Mr Morrison winning a coin toss to speak first.

He spoke about a strong economy, lowering unemployment and promised to fix the GST in Western Australia.

Mr Shorten promised to deliver health and education funding and action on climate change.

Mr Morrison demanded Mr Shorten answer a question truthfully, saying he couldn’t “slink away” like before.

One of the most contentious polices from Labor has been its crackdown on franking credits and audience member Ron asked Mr Shorten about its impact on pensioners.

“We are not interested in affected pensioners at all so our policy doesn’t apply to people who receive a pension or part-pension,” Mr Shorten said.

But Mr Morrison couldn’t let that remark pass, saying: “Sorry … I’ve got to pick him up here because it does hit pensioners”.

Mr Morrison said the franking credit policy did hit pensioners who created self-managed super funds. “It is not true to say that pensioners don’t get hit,” he said.

Mr Shorten said he wasn’t talking about pensioners with self managed super funds but the PM said he hadn’t qualified his response.

“You don’t get to slink away from it like you did at the press conference the other day,” Mr Morrison said.

When Mr Morrison tried to interject again, Mr Shorten dismissed him saying “you had a good crack”.

Mr Shorten eventually acknowledged there would be a small number of pensioners and part-pensioners who created self-managed super funds after March 2018 that would be impacted by the policy.

But added: “Do you really think that it’s fair that someone who doesn’t pay income tax in a year which they get a tax credit, gets a tax refund?”

He also dismissed Mr Morrison’s comments that people had worked hard all their lives to be a self-funded retiree, saying “so have all other pensioners”. He said it wasn’t sustainable to give a tax refund to those who don’t pay tax.

The two leaders faced off for their first debate but it seemed they would rather not look at each other.

The two leaders were sitting on stools with a healthy distance between them and were keen to impress the 48 undecided voters in the audience.

Each leader made a three-minute opening address staring down the barrel of the camera and continued to answer questions this way too.

But as the debate continued, Mr Morrison started to interject and address Mr Shorten directly about some of his points on climate change.

“I think Australians deserve to know, what is the cost of the change?” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Shorten started to respond but was interrupted by one of the hosts Lanai Scarr, who said: “Mr Shorten you can speak directly to the Prime Minister as well, you guys are sitting next to each other, you don’t need to look directly down the barrel of the camera”.

Mr Shorten said “your people” told him to talk to the camera, but that he was happy to chat with the PM.

The interaction followed comments from viewers on social media about the slightly awkward set-up that saw the two leaders seated on bar stools with healthy distance between them.

The leaders were asked about what they admired about each other.

Mr Morrison said he respected all members of parliament and anyone who served their country, which includes Mr Shorten.

Mr Shorten was a bit more specific saying he respected Mr Morrison for those reasons, as well as his work on mental health. He praised the Prime Mnister for being a man of “deep conviction”.

“I think on mental health, Scott, you’re doing a good job”.

Asked about the preference deal with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, the Prime Minister said Mr Palmer wasn’t part of his campaign and the government was pursuing him for not paying his workers.

Mr Morrison said Labor also tried to get the controversial billionaire’s preferences. He said the United Australia Party was less dangerous to the country than Labor and the Greens.

Mr Shorten said Mr Palmer was playing a chaotic role in the election campaign, and he should pay his debts rather than on advertising.

Mr Morrison couldn’t resist butting in when Mr Shorten was asked how much the electric Nissan Leaf car costs and said “I haven’t bought a new car in a while, I couldn’t tell you”.

Mr Morrison said an electric car was $28,000 more than non-electric for the same type of car.

Mr Shorten hit back with: “Well the PM’s spending his time in the motor pages, that’s super” before being interrupted by Mr Morrison, who insisted: “That’s where most Australians often spend their time too mate”.

Mr Shorten said it was hard to buy a cheap electric car in Australia because there wasn’t a proper market for them or charging stations.

“We’re not going to tell you to give in your ute,” Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten was asked to rule out “any negative impact or job losses” as a result of Labor’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target.

His response: “I can categorically say that if we don’t take real action on climate change it will be a disaster for our economy.

“I can categorically guarantee that if we invest in climate change policies and we’re fair dinkum, in the future we’ll have more jobs, in the future we’ll have lower energy prices, and we won’t be known as the generation that handed on a worst deal to our kids”.

Mr Shorten noted when people stopped tipping chemicals into rivers they said it would cost business more and some people even complained when asbestos stopped being used.

“There’s nothing wrong with requiring change but we’ll work with business,” he said.

He said “we can’t keep ducking the issue” and would take on the Government’s scare campaign.

Meanwhile, Mr Morrison was asked how much of a threat climate change was to Australia’s future and how urgent was the need for action.

“I think it is a threat and I think it does require urgent action,” Mr Morrison said, adding “it’s a question of what your targets are”.

He said the Coalition’s emissions reduction target of 26 per cent had not changed over the last four years. The PM said the Government would meet its Kyoto 2020 targets with a surplus of 369 million tonnes of carbon abatement.

Mr Morrison was asked whether the claim the Medevac legislation would see an influx of boat arrivals “just simply a lie”? But he brushed off the question saying it was the advice of the secretary of the department of home affairs.

Mr Shorten was asked how Labor would ensure boat arrivals would not restart under its leadership, he said “I actually accept boat turnbacks work”.

When challenged by Mr Morrison that Labor doesn’t support temporary protection visas, Mr Shorten acknowledged there were differences between the two parties’ policies.

He said Labor supported the treatment of refugees in Australia if necessary, and differed from the Coalition in its tone about the time taken to resettle refugees. He said he didn’t want to see the demonisation of refugees.