The Wellington Regional Debating Championship was held over the 19th and 20th of March at Wellington Girls’ College. This year we had entries from 16 extremely high quality teams from around the wider Wellington Region.
Five preliminary rounds were held across Saturday and Sunday. Teams debated topics ranging from whether a tax should be implemented on sugary food and drink, to whether quotas should be introduced for non-white actors at the Oscars.
The four teams that broke to the semi-finals were Wellington College, Scots College, Queen Margaret College and Wellington East Girls’ College. Hutt International Boys’ School were very close to breaking but missed out on speaker points. The teams debated whether iwi should be given funding to provide social services, such as education and welfare, directly. Wellington College and Scots College progressed through to the final from two very good debates.
The final was held in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd. The motion was “That the US should intervene militarily in Syria”. Scots College affirmed and Wellington College negated. After an excellent debate Wellington College were unanimously crowned the Wellington champions for 2016.
From the weekend two teams were selected to represent Wellington at Nationals. Special thanks to all the adjudicators who gave up their time to judge over the weekend. A big thank you also to Wellington Girls’ College for hosting yet again.
The results and speaker awards for the tournament are listed below:
Winners: Wellington College
Ben Stockton
Nick Webster
Tim Rutherford
Alex Sinclair
Runners Up: Scots College
Lachlan Parlane
Andrew Tang
Manraj Rahi
Peter McKenzie
Best Speaker
Peter McKenzie (Scots College)
Wellington Black
Peter McKenzie (Scots College)
Michael O’Brien (Wellington College)
Brooke Kinajil-Moran (Wellington Girls’ College)
Wellington Gold
Ben Stockton (Wellington College)
Sam Penno (HIBS)
Ursula Crawford (Wellington East Girls’ College)
Reserve to the Wellington teams:
Anya Bukholt-Payne (Wellington High School)
Highly Commended Speakers
Sam Porta (HIBS)
Catherina Lee (St Catherine’s College)
Finn Connell (HVHS),
Promising Speaker:
Alvien Benitez (HIBS)
