45 percent of Australia's largest focus group chose Julia Gillard as the winner of the Leaders Debate, 34 percent chose Tony Abbott and 20 percent called it a draw.

Like "the worm" the result also showed a distinct male female split with 50 percent of women scoring it a win for Gillard, and 43 percent of men. There were few differences apparent related to age with the exception of the 75+ age group which went for Abbott over Gillard.

Chief Editor of On Line Opinion Graham Young said that "Abbott may have lost the debate, but computerised semantic analysis showed that he was more central to the debate than Gillard.

"This is not necessarily favourable to Abbott, it just means that he was the more discussed of the two. "

Some of this arose from surprise that he did as well as he did. As one respondent said 'Abbott went better than I thought he would. Gillard was nervous'."

Mr Young said that respondents thought that Julia Gillard was positive, confident, and articulate. She seems to have side-stepped the ridiculing of her slogan "moving forward" as many respondents associated her with moving forward without any sense of irony.

According to a respondent 'Gillard is spectactularly composed, assured and even winsome. Her self-deprecation at the outset over her "moving forward" slogan inclined one to forgive her for it, esp as she didn't overuse the slogan in the debate.'

Tony Abbott was seen to have substance and to be answering the questions.

They say that you should never work with children or animals. It proved to be partly the case here, with the worm injecting itself into the process and inviting viewers to watch themselves watching the debate.

This is evident in this quote: 'Each one got a greater response dependent on specific areas; for example, the coalition is perceived stronger in economic policy, so it got higher ratings; and labor is perceived stronger in worker entitlements, so it got stronger ratings there. Also, women appeared more disposed to rate higher for emotional type aspects, which as a woman, annoys me'.

Mr Young said that the research also confirmed that voters tend to make up their mind on events like the debate on impressions more than policies.

The Leximancer map of responses can be accessed by clicking here.

For further information contact Graham Young on 0411 104 801 or by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Verbatims

"Tony Abbott appeared more genuine"

"Neither of them said anything or promised to do anything. They were negative and both showed a complete lack of leadership."

"Abbott answered questions, & made sense. Gillard waffled on about important things with mostly motherhood statements."

"I thought that Abbott won only in debating skills....was not convinced that he was honest in what he said but expressed conviction"

""The leaders seemed to avoid the traps and presented the case politely towards the moderator and each other. Neither leader presented any outstanding new material"

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