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Parties Haggle Over Rules For Leaders’ Debate

Following Prime Minister John Howard’s announcement of the 2004 Federal Election, the Liberal and Labor parties immediately began negotiating on the terms of a leader’s debate.

The Liberal Party’s Federal Director, Brian Loughnane, wrote to the ALP National Secretary, Tim Gartrell, proposing a set of debate rules.

The proposed rules and the correspondence between the two men is shown below.

Loughnane

Rules

Gartrell

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Malcolm Farnsworth
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