SYDNEY, April 30 — The two men vying to lead Australia for the next three years faced off over the economy and plummeting trust in politicians in a testy first televised election debate today.

As polls showed the race to the May 18 vote tightening, embattled conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison and frontrunner Bill Shorten of the centre-left opposition Labour party traded sometimes personal barbs as they debated the country’s future.

Morrison—who faces electoral defeat less than a year after coming to office in a party coup—painted the opposition leader as a poor custodian of this G20 economy.

"Who do you trust to manage a US$2 trillion (RM8.27 trillion) economy?” asked Morrison, framing the debate as a choice between the Liberal party’s continued stewardship and costly policy changes.

While Australia’s economy has grown solidly for more than two decades, storm clouds are gathering and there is unease at the rising cost of living and vast income disparities. 

Tapping into that sense of growing malaise, Shorten accused the Liberal government of looking after "the top end of town”.

"There is a mood for change in Australia,” he said, promising to improve incomes and put "middle and working class people back on top”.

"Everything is going up in Australia except people’s wages,” he said.

Morrison accused the Labor leader of not being honest with voters about the cost of new emissions reduction targets and other policy changes.

For months the polls have shown the opposition headed for a sizeable victory, but ahead of the debate a Newspoll survey showed Labor’s lead narrowing to two percentage points, well within the margin of error.

The campaign so far has been dominated by shrill attacks and hyperbolic accusations of impending doom if one side or the other wins.

That tension was on full display, with cries of "rubbish” and frequent interruptions from the candidates as moderators in Perth tried to keep the debate on track. 

When asked to say what they admired about the other man, the pair could offer only tepid endorsements about public service in parliament and on a few specific issues.

 Controversial tycoon

Today’s poll showed the election will be closely fought, but also underscored the complexities of Australia’s election system—which asks voters to rank parties by preferences and encourages voting pacts between major and minor parties.

The poll for the first time counted support for controversial mining mogul Clive Palmer, who has bought his way to five percent of the vote with months of ad spending worth tens of millions of dollars.

His populist "Make Australia Great” message can be seen on billboards and TV screens across the country, echoing the campaign waged successfully by Donald Trump in his 2016 run for the White House.

The Newspoll predicted that 60 per cent of Palmer’s supporters would prefer Morrison’s Liberal party, boosting its showing relative to Labor.

Morrison tried to distance himself from Palmer, but insisted Labour and the Greens were a bigger risk to the Australian economy than the controversial millionaire. — AFP