New Zealand Schools’ Debating

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For the first time in over a decade, and possibly ever, New Zealand has finished the preliminary rounds of the World Champs in first place. The “break” is below (wins, then judges)

1. New Zealand 8-23
2 South Africa 8-22
3 England 8 21
4 Canada 7 21
5 Pakistan 7 19
6 Israel 7 19
7 Singapore 6 19
8 Australia 6 18
9 Ireland 6 18
10 Greece 6 18
11 Slovenia 6 16
12 Scotland 5 15
13 South Korea 5 15
14 Wales 5 14
15 Hong Kong 5 14
16 Netherlands 5 14

I’ve been asked to provide information about how the octo-finals work. The first ranked team now debates the 16th ranked team. The 2nd ranked team debates the 15th, and so on. Each team that loses is knocked out of the competition. Quarter-finals follow the octos, then two semi-finals, then the Grand Final. If New Zealand wins its octo then they will debate either Australia or Ireland in the quarterfinal (8th team vs 9th team).

NZ closed off the preliminary rounds of Worlds today by winning their last two debates against Slovakia and Indonesia. They finish the preliminary rounds with a 8 from 8 record, having dropped only one judge (in round one). This should mean they break 1st or 2nd into the octo-finals, and will face either the 16th of 15th ranked team.

The 2008 team is the first since the 2001 NZ team (at Singapore Worlds 2002) to win all 8 preliminary debates. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen to them though in the octo-finals!

The very best of luck to the team for their octo-final!

Just heard via Julia (the power of text messaging!) that NZ won its debates today against Scotland and Singapore, both by 3-0 margins. Scotland and Singapore were last year’s champion and runner-up teams so these are excellent results.

Not sure who debated in each yet but will post once I have that, plus other, info.

In news just in:

In Round 3, Holly, Maria and Jen beat Bangladesh 3-0, proposing the (prepared) motion, “This House would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research”.

In Round 4, Ben, Tom and Jen beat Japan 3-0, opposing the (impromptu) motion, “This House would make humanities subjects compulsory at undergraduate level”.

Tomorrow is the big day - Scotland in the morning and Singapore in the afternoon.

New Zealand is off to a good start, winning their first two rounds.

In Round One, Ben, Holly and Tom beat Greece 2-1, opposing the motion “This House would use military intervention to deliver aid in a humanitarian crisis”

In Round Two, Holly, Maria and Tom beat Estonia 3-0, proposing the impromptu topic “This House would ban strikes by workers in essential state services”.

Tomorrow the team faces Bangladesh and Japan.

The debating is soon to begin at World Schools in Washington. The tabmaster of the tournament, the venerable Tuna Snider, is running a blog (in addition to running the tab!). Check it out at http://www.wsdc2008.blogspot.com/ There will be round by round results posted there, as well as news about the tournament. NZ results and other things of interest will be cross-posted here.

Also check out www.schoolsdebate.com/blog where NZ’s own Claire Ryan is posting other news from the tournament.

The 2008 World Schools’ Debating Championships starts soon in Washington D.C. The New Zealand squad consists of:

- A team of five debaters (Maria English, Holly Jenkins, Jen Savage, Ben Kornfeld, and Tom Chen)
- Two coaches (Julia Fetherston and Kevin Moar)
- Two adjudicators (Claire Ryan and Jeremy Johnson)

The team leaves NZ this afternoon, and the tournament starts on September 5.

As news filters in from Washington over the next couple of weeks we’ll be updating the website with all the news.

New Zealand’s draw is below. Affirmatives on the left, negative on the right.

Round 1: This house supports military intervention to deliver emergency aid in humanitarian crises
Greece v New Zealand

Round 2: Impromptu
New Zealand v Estonia

Round 3: This house would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research
New Zealand v Bangladesh

Round 4: Impromptu
Japan v New Zealand

Round 5: This house would make the directors of multinational companies personally liable for environmental abuses committed by their companies in the developing world
New Zealand v Scotland

Round 6: Impromptu
Singapore v New Zealand

Round 7: This house believes that governments have a duty to bail out failing financial institutions
Slovakia v New Zealand

Round 8: Impromptu
New Zealand v Indonesia

New Zealand has a pretty tough draw, with debates against last year’s winning team and runner-up team. Greece have also been strong performers in recent years, and some describe Indonesia as the sleeping giants of the schools debating world.

All the very best to the team!

Photos from the 2007 and 2008 National Championships are now available online via the Photos link.

The 2008 National Finals of the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Championships were held from 23-26 May at the Victoria University of Wellington, Law School. The Championships are the premier schools’ debating competition in New Zealand. Twelve regional teams from Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Central North Island, Wellington, Nelson-Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago-Southland, took part in the competition. The regional teams comprise the best speakers from the hundreds of debaters who competed at various regional competitions held earlier in the year. On Saturday and Sunday each team competed in a mixture of prepared and limited preparation debates at Victoria University’s Pipitea Campus. In the preliminary rounds the teams debated the following topics:

• This House believes New Zealand should elect its MPs through FPP rather than MMP (prepared, rounds one and two);
• This House would force large companies to adopt a quota for women in senior positions;
• This House would use military action to overthrow the Burmese junta;
• This House supports public, rather than private, ownership of utility companies

After the five preliminary rounds, the top four teams were Auckland White, Wellington Gold, Wellington Black (one loss each), and Waikato (two losses).  The motion for the semi-final was: “This House would offer amnesty to dictators who voluntarily step down”. Waikato defeated Auckland White in a 4-1 decision and Wellington Gold defeated Wellington Black in a 5-2 decision.

The Grand Final was again hosted by Hon. Peter Dunne in the Legislative Council Chamber of Parliament, before distinguished guests the Commissioner of Police, Mr Howard Broad, Mr James Palmer, Partner at Russell McVeagh, Helen Bichan from the Bioethics Council and an audience of several hundred school students.

The Waikato team team consisting of Jessica Jackman, Tom Chen, and Luke Craven successfully affirmed the topic “This House would force journalists to reveal their sources” against the Wellington Gold team of Holly Jenkins, Julia Wells, and Johanna McDavitt, winning a narrow 3-2 victory. In doing so they became the first Waikato team to win since 2001, and only the second in the competition’s twenty year history.

After the Grand Final the members of the 2008 Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools Debating team were announced. The five member team is made up of Maria English (Wellington Black), Holly Jenkins (Wellington Gold), Tom Chen (Waikato), Ben Kornfeld (Auckland Blue), and Jen Savage (Central North Island). Maria English was named Captain of the New Zealand team for 2008 and also received the Russell McVeagh Cup for the Best Speaker at the Championships. Kurt Purdon from Otago was named as the reserve to the team. The team will compete at the next two World Championships, in Washington in September and Athens, Greece, in February 2009.

The New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council is very grateful to Russell McVeagh for its continued support of New Zealand Schools’ Debating, which allows these Championships to occur. Also to the Police Act Review and the NZ Police as the National topic sponsor, The Bioethics Council as the regional sponsor and Victoria University as the host of the Championships at the weekend. Thanks too to everyone who contributed to making the Championships such a memorable success - adjudicators, coaches, chairpeople, and many other helpers.

Winners:
Waikato
Tom Chen (Hillcrest High School)
Luke Craven (Bethlehem College)
Jessica Jackman (Sacred Heart Girls’ College, Hamilton)
Coaches: Max Harris and Akif Malik

Runners-Up:
Wellington Gold
Holly Jenkins (Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt)
Julia Wells (Wellington East Girls’ College)
Johanna McDavitt (St Mary’s College)
Coaches: Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna and Kathy Scott-Dowell

Highly Commended Speakers:
Nick Cross (Scot’s College)
Nupur Upadhyay (St Cuthbert’s College)
Sam Horner (Wentworth College)

Rosemary Dixon Cup for the Most Promising Speaker:
Luke Craven (Bethlehem College)

2008 Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team Reserve:
Kurt Purdon (Otago Boys’ High School)

2008 Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team:
Maria English (Samuel Marsden Collegiate School)
Holly Jenkins (Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt)
Jennifer Savage (Wanganui Collegiate School)
Ben Kornfeld (King’s College)
Tom Chen (Hillcrest High School)

The Andrew Stockley Cup for Captain of the New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team:
Maria English (Samuel Marsden Collegiate School)

The Russell McVeagh Cup for Best Speaker at the Championships:
Maria English (Samuel Marsden Collegiate School)