Held at St Philips Presbyterian Church Community Centre, in Waverley, the debate attracted an audience of about 50.
Labour candidate Rachel Brooking said it was incredibly offensive her party’s policies were considered "national-lite"and said she was really pleased by their performance during this term.
Independent candidate Jim O’Malley reaffirmed the $90 million hospital cutbacks and a "less than productive relationship" between the council and local MPs on this issue had motivated him to run independently.
Mr French said a big thing facing the Dunedin electorate was the hospital.
He said it needed all 421 beds, the 13 operating theatres, and Pet scanner, and National was committed to all of those.
Greens candidate Francisco Hernandez called for a total restructuring of the model for tertiary education, in a manner more conducive to the public interest.
He called the cuts to the University Of Otago geology department, a frontline in the response to climate change, "absolutely intolerable".
NZ First candidate Keegan Langeveld said there was "a gumboot on the throat of our farmers" and called for less overregulation and more intervention at a farming level, which included gene editing of rye grasses that would lead to cows producing less methane.
Act NZ candidate Tim Newman was unable to attend.
