Wellington wins New Zealand Schools Debating Champs

Wellington has defeated Auckland to win the 2016 Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Champs, in the Grand Final held at Parliament this afternoon.

The Wellington Gold team of Ben Stockton (Wellington College), Sam Penno (Hutt International Boys' School) and Ursula Crawford (Wellington East Girls') successfully affirmed the motion “That state housing should be built in high socio-economic areas", winning in a 3-2 decision, in front of a huge crowd from around Wellington.

Wellington have won the tournament for four years in a row.

"It was a great debate on a really topical issue", says says Josh Baxter, the President of the New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council.

"Wellington narrowly won the debate by arguing that we needed greater social integration and cohesion between our communities, and the topic was a way of achieving that."

The final was the culmination of a weekend of debating between thirty six of New Zealand’s top secondary school students at Victoria University of Wellington.

Teams from Wellington, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago-Southland, Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Central North Island, Waikato and Kahurangi-Marlborough took part in seven preliminary rounds of debates, confronting such issues as whether we should implement a universal basic income, whether advertising of pharmaceutical drugs should be banned, and whether the government should extend the student loan scheme to people studying overseas.

Students found out the topics and what side they were to argue only one hour before the debate.

Wellington and Auckland defeated another team from Wellington and Canterbury in the semi-finals.

The best five speakers at the tournament were named as members of the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team, which will represent New Zealand at the World Schools' Debating Champs in Germany in July.

The team is Peter McKenzie (Scots College) (Captain), Sam Penno (Hutt International Boys' School), Piper Whitehead (Auckland Diocesan School for Girls), Amy Spittal (Waikato Diocesan School for Girls) and Matthew Moore (Christ's College).

The Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Championships have been held annually since 1988 and are recognised as the country’s most prestigious school debating competition. The Championships are sponsored by Russell McVeagh.

ENDS

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