Luxon, Hipkins meet in final leaders' debate before 7 November election

Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins met on 20 October for a final leaders' debate ahead of New Zealand's election on 7 November.

The debate was hosted by Stuff and scheduled to start at 7.30pm. RNZ described it as the last Chris vs Chris leaders' debate.

It came after a Post/Freshwater Strategy poll released that morning put Parliament on a knife-edge. According to that poll, neither a National nor Labour coalition would have enough seats to govern, with the Opportunity Party narrowly entering Parliament as kingmaker.

RNZ carried live updates of the debate from Political Editor Jo Moir, Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch and their team. The Spinoff also ran a live blog of the Stuff debate.

The final debate followed an earlier TVNZ leaders' debate between Luxon and Hipkins. That debate was moderated by Jack Tame and screened live on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+.

In a 1News panel after the TVNZ debate, 49% said Hipkins had won their vote compared with 24% for Luxon, with 27% undecided. 1News reported Vote Compass results showing women favoured Hipkins over Luxon by 47% to 23% and men favoured Hipkins by 41% to 28%.