Tonight's Newshub leaders' debate kept both Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon on their toes and off guard, and extracted some hardline positions.
Hipkins brought a fire he seemed to be missing in the first debate, constantly challenging Luxon to answer questions more fully. Luxon seemed a bit thrown off at times, but largely tried to play the more serious statesman.
The debate touched on all sorts of topics: crime, economy, health, race relations, education, climate, transport, governing partners, defence and foreign affairs.
It was the details, digging into their policies, and a number of new commitments in some unexpected areas which really grabbed attention, though.
The debate followed the latest political poll, released earlier this evening.
National and ACT would need NZ First's support to form a government, and Labour is still losing support, the latest 1News-Verian poll suggests.
It is a shift from the previous week's poll, when the two could have formed a coalition without needing Winston Peters.
NZ First and the Greens were the only parties on the rise among those likely to get into Parliament, with no change for ACT.
Follow along with RNZ's liveblog for the latest updates:
