Audrey Young: Election debate

Don Brash leaned so heavily on the TV3 lectern he looked in danger of tipping over.

The tactic was to appear a relaxed, and therefore equal, opponent to the Prime Minister. But he is not relaxed in a television studio.

He introduced ambiguity into the Act vote in Epsom by suggesting it "was a matter for Epsom voters", the day after his president urged voters to re-elect National MP Richard Worth. And bizarrely, he picked up where Rodney Hide left off in the TVNZ debate, decrying the demise of the "cigar bar". Was there ever more than one in the entire country?

But he remained strong, where he needed to be, on tax cuts and the economy.

Helen Clark faltered several times but at the hands of John Campbell, not Dr Brash.

She could not adequately explain why she had pilloried Dr Brash for his Orewa speech then proceeded to adopt similar policies, such as deadlines for the treaty claims. She had no decent answer to Campbell's question, "What's so wrong with a referendum", on the nuclear issue. What's wrong with people deciding?

But the invisible worm soared when she empathised with the woman probation officer who refused to sit in the back row of a Corrections powhiri, and recalled the tears at Waitangi at the hands of Titewhai Harawira. Points victory to Helen Clark.

The big loser was Winston Peters. Helen Clark's walk down memory lane of the ill-fated National-New Zealand First coalition will have sent voters to bed with nightmares.