Two key moments from the leaders' debate that Albanese and Dutton can learn from

Sky News host Kieran Gilbert and the Western Sydney audience probed both major party leaders on their approaches to policies from cost-of-living relief to health, education, energy, housing and the Middle East war.

Despite Mr Albanese's attempt to bring the topic around to the Australian public service early in the debate, the topic received only minimal attention.

And while voters in the audience declared the Prime Minister to have won the debate, Mr Dutton was in good form despite news breaking beforehand that his father had been rushed to hospital, with a sharp performance enabling him to finally move on from his APS stumble.

But each leader faced an awkward moment in which a key campaign message was thrown into sharp relief.

For Mr Albanese, this came after he wielded a Medicare card as a prop as he declared: "All you need is this little thing here" to access medical care in Australia, while talking up the achievements of his first term.

"You just need your Medicare card, not your credit card - because Labor created Medicare, will strengthen Medicare."

The Opposition Leader brought a dose of reality to Mr Albanese's oft-repeated line, which seemed to merge the government's urgent care clinics with Labor's election pledge to invest $8.5 billion (matched by the Coalition) to lift GP bulk-billing rates "back up to 90 per cent".

Mr Dutton turned back to Prith, the woman who had asked the original question about GP gap fees "increasing every day."

"Can I just ask, what's your experience?" Mr Dutton said.

"When you go to the doctor that you talk about with the gap fee, do you have to use just your Medicare card, or do you have to use your credit card as well?"

The answer, of course, was: "It's both."

"Bulk billing doesn't cover the full charge, so I have to pay $70 or $80 extra," she said.

Mr Dutton seized on the rebuttal of the Prime Minister's claim, with which he likes to declare Labor as the party of Medicare.

"Yours is the story of literally hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians," he told the woman.

"I've heard the Prime Minister run this stunt before with the 'only need your Medicare card'. It's not true."

The ensuing stoush centred on which party had the better or worse record on bulk billing.

Mr Dutton accused Labor of reviving its "Mediscare" campaign, while Mr Albanese brought up the Opposition Leader's record as the former health minister who had once tried to introduce a GP copayment.

Without getting bogged down in detail, the campaign lesson was clear: Voters don't want to hear ideology dressed as fact.

The reality is that Australians are fed up with the cost of going to the doctor, and voters will not simply forget this because saying you "stand for Medicare."

As for Mr Dutton, the awkward moment came as he attempted to tread a careful line when explaining the Coalition's immigration and housing policies after reassuring an audience member that he valued migrants' contribution to Australia.

"We've been made better because of our migration story," the Opposition Leader said, before attacking the government over a "dramatic increase" in international student numbers and promising to address housing affordability by cutting migration.

"I'm all in favour of a well-managed migration program, but I'm not in favour of what the Prime Minister has done by flooding the market," he said.

"A person is coming in every 44 seconds into our country, and we haven't got the housing to accommodate that."

Prefacing any discussion of migration with praise for the many Australians with overseas heritage has become standard for Mr Dutton, who has clearly been polishing his lines.

Less polished was 74-year-old Janine, who bluntly declared: "We have a lot of migrants."

"I have not seen any government take control," she said.

"We have a lot of students here who are visiting, who are buying housing ... When is one of our governments going to turn up and say, 'Australia belongs to Australians, and therefore our land remains Australian land'?"

After all the work he'd put in to reassure the Western Sydney audience he supported - nay, celebrated - those with overseas heritage, this was not the tone Mr Dutton was going for.

The Opposition Leader had just tried to reassure an audience member who'd asked what he would do "to ensure migration discussions remain respectful and avoid demonising migrants", saying: "We are a greater country because of our migrant story."

He'd managed to soften his answer to a question suggesting the Coalition's pledge to cut international student numbers by 80,000 "actually hurts our brand worldwide" by emphasising that migrants had made Australia "a very lucky country".

But you can't account for what members of the public will say in unscripted moments - and their realness can bring even the most carefully honed messages undone.