The 75-minute debate was attended by more than 500 people and involved six questions and a special section on minority government.

The panel judging the performance of the three political leaders was The Examiner's chief reporter, Alison Andrews, political analyst Tony McCall, The Examiner's deputy editor, Barry Prismall, and The Examiner's chief of staff, Mark Baker.

All four judged areas such as style and appearance, knowledge of issues, presentation, delivery and confidence.

Andrews and Prismall awarded the debate to Mr McKim, while Baker and Dr McCall thought that Mr Hodgman was the best performer.

However, when all the scores out of 10 points were totalled and then averaged out, Mr McKim won with 7.18, followed by Mr Hodgman with 6.68 and Mr Bartlett with 6.56.

The full voting (out of 10 points):

Alison Andrews: 7.75 McKim, 7.25 Hodgman, 6.75 Bartlett.

Tony McCall: 6 McKim, 7 Hodgman, 6.5 Bartlett.

Barry Prismall: 8 McKim, 5 Hodgman, 6 Bartlett.

Mark Baker: 7 McKim, 7.5 Hodgman, 7 Bartlett.