Debating News

The Debating Association of Victoria's quarter final round for A Grade (Year 12) teams occurred on Thursday 10 October, at 7.00pm, and was held at Xavier College's campus in Kew, in front of an audience of approximately 50 people. Strathmore Secondary College was only one of two public schools within the eight total that were competing in the quarter finals. The Strathmore Secondary College 1 team, which consisted of the following students: Joseph Price, Andreas Oltoumis and Joseph Thorsen, had never progressed this far in the DAV competition before (being eliminated at the Octo-finals for the last two years). In fact, the same Strathmore team had been defeated by Xavier College last year.

Upon receiving the proposition, 'That the government should disregard the opinions of local residents when building necessary public works,' (for which Strathmore had to argue the affirmative case), the debate progressed at a lively, sometimes heated manner. Xavier seemed favoured by their being on the negative side of the debate, as it hardly seemed reasonable to agree with the statement, as it was residents of localities who were the ones being affected by the ‘necessary’ public works.

While Xavier College had great scope for potential rebuttal of Strathmore’s arguments, their team chose to pursue a weak line of argument centred around preservation of 'community spirit'. As well, Xavier adhered to the argument that if residents were not consulted, then the resulting public works would not be utilised (presumably due to inopportune construction, or unsuitable placement).

Strathmore’s win (which was decided 2:1, as determined by a panel of 3 adjudicators) was mostly attributed to a more cohesive case, as well as to a greater quality within their arguments and rebuttal. As well, there were discrepancies in the Xavier case, chief of which was a lack of consistency in their use of the definition of the terms of the topic, and mention of a ‘model’ which never existed. Xavier also turned to bluster late in the debate to belittle Strathmore’s arguments, but this had little effect on the outcome.

It was truly an exhilarating debate, and Strathmore’s Year 12 team looks forward to progressing to the semi -finals on October 8. This time the venue will be Korowa.

Mr. C. Bassios

Debating and Public speaking Coordinator.