St Kent’s win Auckland Regionals 2014
The 2014 Russell McVeagh Auckland Regionals Debating Championships saw 30 teams turn out this year. The high quantity of teams was only matched by their high level of quality, as a large number of teams were competitive throughout the tournament, providing for an exciting and unpredictable series of results as the weekend progressed.
Over four rounds of debating on Saturday 22nd March, students argued the merits of issues such as streamed classes in schools, whether parents in prison should be able to raise their children behind bars, the right of public sector employees to strike, and whether New Zealand should ban alcohol.
At the end of the first day, St Kentigern College were top with 4 wins. Following them on 4 wins, was Sacred Heart College. This left 6 remaining places in the quarter finals to be filled by teams on 3 wins. These were Westlake Boys’ High School, Kings College 2, Kings College 1, Auckland Grammar School 1, Westlake Boys’ High School 2 and St Cuthberts College 2.
Those eight teams, as well as a number of speakers chosen for a selection debate, returned for the knockout rounds on Sunday. Progressing through to the semi finals were Kings College 1, St Kentigern College 1, Westlake Boys’ High School 2, and Auckland Grammar School 1. These teams debated the motion ‘This house would ban plastic surgery.’ After a pair of high quality and engaging debates, Auckland Grammar School and St Kentigern advanced to the final, where they debated whether New Zealand should abolish the 5% threshold required for minor parties to be represented in Parliament.
All adjudicators thought the final was a debate of a very high quality, and all six speakers demonstrated a great deal of knowledge about the topic and an impressive ability to mould this into strategically strong arguments. In their result, the five judge panel was split, with St Kentigern winning the debate on a 4-1 decision.
A number of prizes were awarded to individual speakers to recognise their outstanding performance throughout the tournament.
Auckland Schools Development Squad
Amelia Vincent (Kristin School)
Liam Rawlings (Westlake Boys’ High School)
George Han (Westlake Boys’ High School)
Amanda Ngo (Kings College)
Courtney Varney (Kings College)
Becky Lane (St Kentigern College)
Seran Ramanathan (Auckland Grammar School)
Luka Letica (Epsom Girls Grammar School)
Xiwan Wei (Saint Cuthbert’s College)
Soo Kyung Choi (Saint Cuthbert’s College)
Zachary Wong (Macleans College)
Most Promising Speaker
Luka Letica (Epsom Girls Grammar School)
Highly Commended Awards
Francesca Jenkins (Kristin School)
Sam Stead (Auckland Grammar)
Auckland Blue Regional Team
Hannah Jones (Diocesan School for Girls)
Harrison Fookes (Sacred Heart College)
Arun Prakesh (St Kentigern College)
Auckland White Regional Team
Ben Gatting (Sacred Heart College)
Rachel Worthington (St Kentigern College)
Matthew Bilton (Westlake Boys’ High School)
Convenor’s Cup for Best Speaker
Harrison Fookes