Debating News

Debaters take on a rebuttal battle   

On Wednesday, May 20 Mullauna’s four teams in the Debating Association of Victoria’s inter-school competition debating teams – a Year 12 (A Grade), a  Year 11 team (B Grade) , a Year 10 (C Grade) and a Year 9 team (D Grade) – went to Tintern Grammar to continue our proud tradition of taking it up to schools from across the Ringwood region. All the debaters represented Mullauna well, but none of the teams scored a win.

In their debate against Mt Lilydale Mercy College, Year 12s Teiva, Floyd and Caitlin argued well against the proposal that companies should be banned from negotiating with hackers e.g. paying ransoms after a data breach. 

Year 11s Bella, Ethan, and Jeremy also gave it a good shot in arguing against Mt Lilydale Mercy College that the government should limit the use of artificial intelligence to one hour a week. Jeremy did especially well in his first secret topic interschool debate. Bella was awarded Best Speaker. They were coached by Mr Graham. 

Year 10s Grey, and Nathan and Year 9 student Christina did well in a debate against Oxley Christian College. They opposed the idea that schools should only teach books and movies from the last 100 years. They only had an hour to prepare for their debate – with no help from teachers or technology. Ms Watson is their coach.

Our Year 9s also made Mullauna proud in debating Donvale Christian College. They argued against the idea that petrol cars should be banned from being used for business purposes (e.g. taxi, food delivery) from 2030. Ms Davidson is their coach.   

On Wednesday, June 10, Mullauna sent two teams to the Debating Association of Victoria’s inter-school competition debating teams – an A Grade (Year 12) and a D-Grade (Year 9). Unfortunately, because of school commitments and illness C-Grade (Year 10) had to forfeit its debate and the other side forfeited the debate against our B-Grade (Year 11) team. All the debaters represented Mullauna well against schools in the Ringwood region. 

The A-Grade team did particularly well in coping with last-minute withdrawals. Teiva (Year 12) and Bella (Year 11) with a last-minute ring-a-round and Ethan (Year 11) did well in responding. The team did an admirable job in arguing for a very difficult secret topic: “That celebrities such as online influencers and sport stars should be banned from expressing political opinions”, but they did not win.

The C-grade – Christina, Delara, and Michelle, also did well in arguing for the topic: “We should pursue life on Mars”. They also, however, did not win. Ms Davidson is their coach.   

Mr Howell

Debating Co-ordinator