After a winter break spent sunning ourselves on European shores, the QandA Scorecard is back for election season. Our former political editor – and scorecard co-creator – Eric George is no more, yet we’ve assured him his baby will be in good hands.

Scorecard veteran, Liam Quinn, takes the reigns this week, joined by upstart’s freshly minted sports editor, Paddy Naughtin. He may be a Chelsea FC fan, but we’ve been assured he’s no political elitist – he was forced to complete ABC’s Election Compass prior to selection.

But, let’s leave the waffling to the panel, time to get this show on the road.

Doug Cameron – Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Homelessness

Liam Quinn: I was initially lost in the Laphroig in Doug Cameron’s voice, but after becoming accustom to his dulcet tones, he was very solid. Dealt a toughie from the off, he handled the “would Kevin compromise” question relatively well. Also, his seeming reluctance to sling mud at Coalition co-panelist Greg Hunt scored a few points for me. A few of the trickier question later in the evening tripped him up a little – predominantly the refugee/asylum seeker question, but overall I think Cameron was one of the best performers. He didn’t shy away from giving ol’ Rupe and his papers a right old whack either, which as a soon-to-be journalism graduate hoping to find work in the industry, I cannot support or lambast – never know who might be reading this, only to use it against me in an interview one day.

Paddy Naughtin: Doug Cameron was definitely one of last night’s top performers. It was a delight to hear his Scottish accent attack News Ltd over the Daily Telegraph’s front page tirade against the Labor party, and was even greater to see him take the fight right to the man at the top, Rupert Murdoch. I also enjoyed his snide little comments about Grahame Morris’ “drivel meter” going up every time he went to say something. Childish, yes. Funny, always.

Greg Hunt – Shadow Minister for Climate Action

LQ: It didn’t take long for Greg Hunt to hit on some well-worn Liberal Party sound-bytes. At times, he appeared capable of stepping into the red-carpeted coliseum of QandA, yet was shown to be sorely lacking in others. Paddy, by the end of it, I thought he was exposed as a meek combatant in a blue tie, spewing forth rhetoric usually saved for Real Solutions. Yet, the most notable misstep, was when rattling off a list of issues facing the youth of Australia he failed to drop the c-bomb – climate.

PN: Greg Hunt was the perfect Liberal party guest on tonight’s show. He attacked the Government at every chance he got, trumpeted his own party’s lines, and didn’t make an embarrassing gaff. However, this didn’t win him any new friends. Hunt’s inability to capture the audience left him looking a little silly. However, he did win one award from me; most blinks whilst talking. I was seriously mesmerised by his eyes.

Grahame Morris – Political strategist

LQ: Should ABC have dropped “political strategist” and whacked “Coalition cronie” on Grahame Morris’s would-be byline? From the off, he was on the attack. However, the most damning thing for mine was when Morris stated social media won’t have any impact on the upcoming election. A quick Google search – maybe Grahame hasn’t caught on with it yet – can turn up countless articles on the impact social media played in Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaigns. Rudd’s by no means operating at Obama’s level online, but it matters. Massively. Oh, but at least he reminded me to get a new pair of Chuck Taylor’s.

PN: I wasn’t impressed with Grahame Morris at all. The former Howard-man lost a lot of points in my book for the simple dismissing of Cameron’s call-to-arms for unbiased reporting. His views on youth and how to better engage us as young people politically also confused me. Plus, he failed to understand that social media will have a massive effect on the youth vote for the upcoming election. An inexcusable error.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied – Founder of Youth Without Borders

LQ: I don’t know about you Paddy, but Yassmin Abdel-Magied was the early frontrunner for mine. She was the resident Gen-Y-er on the panel, something that shone through when discussing “kids nowadays.” But, Paddy, Yassmin was great in my opinion in showing her depth of understanding about a wide spread of issues without bias: a refreshing change from the agenda pushing pollies. Close the polls, Paddy, we have a winner.

PN: I completely agree, Liam. Yassmin had me right from the get go. Her answers lined up with my views on a number of tonight’s questions very well, and I liked how she wasn’t afraid to further question her fellow panel members on some of the issues they shyed away from. I thought Yassim did a great job representing not only herself, but the also the young people of Australia.

Pamela Williams – National Correspondent, Australian Financial Review

LQ: A great night to have a traditional media representative on, given the way headlines of the last week dominated the opening 20 minutes of discussion or so. I thought Pamela Williams handled TJs cheeky “will the newspaper be important by the next election” question with aplomb, steering away from partisan bashing along Fairfax or News Ltd lines. Unfortunately, Pamela fell victim to the dreaded black-hole effect, as she was unable to really land any memorably punches against her more boisterous opponents. The Silver Fox spotted she was caught in the headlights somewhat, and sent his questions elsewhere.

PN: After starting so bright, Pamela faded away quite quickly. This was rather disappointing as up until then, her answers had been thoughtful, unbiased, and to the point. But as you said Liam, after that there were never really any memorable moments where she stuck it to the other panellists, and as the only journalist at the table I was hoping for a bit more. Sadly, that’s all I can say for her.

Liam Quinn is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and the Politics & Society editor of upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @Quinn_LP

Paddy Naughtin is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and the Sports editor of upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaddyNaughtin