Debating Update

An exciting update from our debating team!

After a long hiatus from in-person debating it's been great to get back to face to face after the online format of last year.

On Thursday the 25th of February, our 11 Huntingtower teams headed to Wesley College Glen Waverley to debate in the DAV Schools Competition. Even with masks on and seating socially distant, it was a nice change of pace to be back in person.

Our A Grade team (Year 12s) debated Victorian involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The debate was able to explore the economics, geo-political strategies and moral obligations related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Our B Grade students (Year 11s) debated the censorship of discriminatory texts in schools and examined the wider effects on society and free speech. The debates in part considered how we need to balance acknowledging and studying past speech and literature whilst not promoting the ideologies that may have caused past injustices.

Our C Grade delegation (Year 10s) debated whether alcoholic beverages should be plain-packaged. With alcohol consumption increasing during the pandemic and the correlation of increased alcohol consumption to violence, the debates were not only pertinent but an interesting consideration of alcohol’s place in society.

Finally, our D Grade contingent (Year 9s) debated the efficacy of subsidies on tourism in regional Victoria. With recent devastation from the 2020 Bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, this topic was able to introduce our newest School’s Competition debaters to the economics, practicalities, social and moral factors that are usually considered in debates.

Now onto our results! With 10 of our 11 teams winning their debates, over 90% of our teams won in their respective debates. We also achieved clean sweeps of victories in three of our grades: A, B and C. 

Hearty congratulations is in order for all those who participated and especially those who spoke! We’d also like to give an extra congratulations to our best or highest scoring speakers: Martin Grozev (Year 12/A Grade), Miranda Frost (Year 11/B Grade), Oscar Li (Year 11/B Grade), Harshitaa Nandakumar (Year 10/C Grade), Anushka Sridhar (Year 10/C Grade), Michael Xiao (Year 10/C Grade), Sophie Lai (Year 9/D Grade), Josie Marriott (Year 9/D Grade) and Nihar Patil (Year 9/D Grade). 

With some great topics ahead, we wish all debaters every success for Round 2.

Kallista Amery and Patrick Mitchell

Debating Captains