Predictable debate did neither Kevin Rudd nor Tony Abbott any favours The big surprise at the third and final leaders' debate, deep in the heart of western Sydney, was that there wasn't a single question about the issue that is supposed to preoccupy that part of the country, if not the continent - the flow of asylum seekers on leaky boats. Everything else was utterly predictable. Kevin Rudd attacked Tony Abbott on his lack of costings and his "unfair, unaffordable" paid parental leave scheme, and Abbott accused Rudd of negativity, yet managed to punctuate his answers with pre-planned attack lines. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at the leaders' debate at Rooty Hill RSL in western Sydney. "I'm going to try not to waffle and try to avoid attacking the other side," he prefaced one answer. "After six years, this is the best he can do!" he closed another. The most potent came after Rudd delivered a defence of his economic record in response to a question from Ian, a small business owner, on Labor's failure to produce a surplus: "If his management of the global financial crisis was so outstanding, why did his party sack him?" Abbott countered. Mr Rudd arrived smiling but seemed to be taken off guard by the hostile nature of the early questions, beginning with Amanda, who asked if he honestly believed he was not destabilising Julia Gillard in the months before the leadership change. The long-winded reply did him no favours. Nor did his stubborn refusal to budge from the claim that Abbott plans $70 billion in cuts, in the face of point blank denials. Rudd did much better on other fronts, especially education, and would have been heartened by the one time the audience broke into applause - when the same Ian applied the "common sense test" to the Coalition's parental leave scheme. "The forklift driver in Mount Druitt shouldn't be paying his taxes so a pretty little lady lawyer on the North Shore earning $180,000 a year can have a kid," he declared. Mark it down as a draw. It won't change the direction of this uninspiring campaign.