Auckland Debating Association (ADA) Incorporated

News

• AUSTRALIA WIN WAR OF THE WORDS.

  The Australian schools debating team has beaten New Zealand in the final of the Russell McVeagh International Debating Tour. Australia successfully negated the topic "That this House would return cultural treasures to their countries of origin" against the New Zealand team of Jeremy Johnson, Joe Connell and Sebastian Tuohy. The closely fought final was held at the Victoria University Law School on Sunday night in front of a large audience including the Minister for the Environment and Wellington Central MP, Marion Hobbs.

  The final was the completion of a week-long debating tour t throughout the North Island, in which teams from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and a development squad of up-and-coming Kiwi debaters competed against each other over 10 rounds of debate. The development squad, (Kate Eastwood from Kerikeri, Aucklander Desley Horton, Elliott O'Brien from Hamilton, Wellingtonian Eleanor Bishop and Laura Fraser from Southland) came fourth in the competition. Hayden Ryan, President of the New Zealand Schools Debating Council, said "The competition was fiercely contested and a high standard of debate was maintained throughout the tournament. It was a great opportunity for the debaters and the audiences at the different schools who supported the tour to learn about debating in an atmosphere of fun and friendship."

  (For further information, contact Claire Ryan by email or on 027 479 5220 or (09) 336 7547)

• The Russell McVeagh International Tour continued in the sun of Napier today, with two outstanding rounds held at Taradale High School and Napier Girls High School.

  The quality of all four debates was exceptionally high, impressing the hundreds of school pupils and the numerous teachers who attended.

  The motion for the impromptu morning round - "This House believes sports boycotts to be a legitimate tool of government foreign policy" - produced two absorbing and closely fought debates before New Zealand emerged the winners over South Africa and Singapore defeated the previously unbeaten Australia.

  A second impromptu round, held in the afternoon, saw the teams competing over the motion "This House believes recipients should work for the unemployment benefit". Completing an very successful day, both New Zealand teams were victorious, with the New Zealand Development Team recording their second win over South Africa, while the senior New Zealand side enjoyed that rarest of prizes - an excellent win over a full-strength Australia

  Our alumni may correct the following if it is incorrect, but the tour organizers believe this to be the first win by the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools Debating team over Australia since the opening round of the 1995 Tour!

  All three of today's wins by New Zealand were welcomed enthusiastically by the supportive crowds of Napier pupils who flocked to the debates. A particular highlight for both audiences was Seb Tuohy's entertaining and constructive use of humour which earned him many young admirers in the Bay - expect many young debaters from the region to imitate the "Seb style" in coming years.

  Anna Livesey, the Coach of the New Zealand Development Team and also the inaugural convenor for the Hawkes Bay Russell McVeagh regional competition (2002), commented on the exceptionally positive response that the tour received in Napier. "Teams had driven from as far away as Gisbourne to see the international debaters and were clearly blown away by the quality of the debates", Anna said. "After the debates, the New Zealand speakers in particular found themselves surrounded by keen Hawkes Bay debaters, all of whom wanted answers to the questions they had about how to debate in the 'Russell McVeagh style' ".

  Jaycee Debating has dominated the region for some time, but the Tour clearly won many converts to the "new" style of debating, and many schools are now primed to enter the Regional Championships planned for 22-23 March.

  "This is one of the key goals planned for Russell McVeagh Tour by the New Zealand Schools Debating Council", Anna said. "Namely, getting pupils in our new region excited about debating and encouraging them to compete in our up-coming regional championships".

  The Tour results are now very close with New Zealand and Australia level on four wins, the New Zealand Development Team in third position with three wins, and Singapore and South Africa still in the hunt with two wins and one win respectively. All teams are eager to push their claims, and some fine debates are expected as the Tour moves into its final phases in Palmerston North and Wellington.

• We're now accepting online entries for the schools prepared debating competitions. Last year we introduced online entry of school information, coach names and contact details and team entries. This was a fabulous success from our point of view and we strongly encourage you to use this facility. Some points to note:
  1. You don't need to confirm your team entries were received by us. The website is connected directly to the debating database so what is displayed on the web browser is what is stored in our system - if you can see your teams listed correctly, then we have them.
  2. Tell your students about the website. We plan to put ever more information available online. And they can check that all their team results have been entered correctly. Again, if you can see the results on the website, they are in the database. Note that anyone can enter a debating result, but team coaches can change a wrong result for their team and a debating coordinator can change a wrong result for their school.
  3. Don't forget to choose Change school contact details, principal's name, etc to update any information that has changed and also How the ADA should contact the Debating Coordinator (eg email, home fax, etc).

  Please enter your coaches and teams online at http://www.ada.org.nz/school/

  Choose your school from the list, and then choose logon as Debating Coordinator and then enter your password. If you have forgotten the password, choose: Request the Debating Coordinator password be sent to you after choosing your school. It should be faxed to you within 24 hours.

  Entries are due in by 25th February

• Debating Venues

  As always, we are looking for schools willing to offer 5 or more rooms in an evening for us to host Advanced level debating (and later octo-finals and quarter-finals at other levels). You can do this online as school coordinator under the option Change school contact details, principal's name, etc .

  Please note that the computer system will remember any offers from past years so you may wish to withdraw any offer you have made (but please don't). We will of course confirm any offer with you before proceeding. We take all the offers we receive, together with school entries and work out which venues will minimise the total distance travelled by all advanced teams.

• This is to give you advance notice of the Russell McVeagh schools debating competition in 2003. This will have to start much earlier because Worlds are in Peru in August 2003.

  So get your diaries out and write in the dates before you become in demand for other things! Feel free to pass on this information to all and sundry and encourage promising young debaters to start thinking about it.

  I am also looking for expressions of interest for:

  • Russell McVeagh Auckland organising committee (feel free to reply)
  • Adjudicators for the Auckland and/or Northland regions. (I'll ask NZSDC about remuneration)
  • Auckland (possibly also Northland) coaches. (The committee will set up criteria for coach selection re Auckland)

  The dates are:

  • Auckland region 5/6 APRIL 2003. Venue: Kings College
  • Northland region: 13 APRIL 2003. Venue: Okaihau College
  • Nationals: 23-26 May 2003, WELLINGTON, NZ
  • Worlds: 6-15 August 2003, LIMA, PERU.

  Worlds 2004: GERMANY (It's never to early to learn to sprechen Deutch)

• This year the school prepared debating competition will be running a new level - Level 1 - for years 7 and 8 (and younger if you wish!). As in past years, years 7 and 8 can still enter the Junior level competition (up to year 10)
• Dates for the 2003 Auckland/Northland Schools Prepared Debating Competition are available
• What's Lukewarm