2024
The New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council hosted the Free Speech Union New Zealand Schools' British Parliamentary Debating Championship 2024 on December 7th and 8th. We were very pleased to have had 64 participating teams, making this the largest edition of the championship since it was first held in 2018. Students from the far north in Kerikeri, right down the country to Dunedin, participated in the tournament. Thanks to the generous support of the Free Speech Union, we were able to make participation in the tournament free of charge for all students, as well as provide prizes for the top performing teams
Congratulations to Havelock North High School (Isabella McKeefry and Yuval Sela) for winning the championship, and to Tauranga Boys College (Oliver Farquharson and James Bunyan) and two teams from Kristin School (Catherine Chen and Matthew Zheng; Bryan Hua and Jacob Johnston) for reaching the Grand Final.
Further congratulations to the Top 10 speakers of the tournament:
10th: Siobhan Murphy (St Cuthbert’s College)
8th=: Kyden Chan (Saint Kentigern College) and James Bunyan (Tauranga Boys College)
7th: Oliver Farquharson (Tauranga Boys College)
5th=: Jamie Pett (Avondale College) and Isabella McKeefry (Havelock North High School)
4th: Matthew Zheng (Kristin School)
2nd=: Bruce Zhang (Macleans College) and Sam Allan (Burnside High School)
1st: Catherine Chen (Kristin School)
Well done to all students for giving the British Parliamentary format a go, and we hope that it served as useful development for the upcoming 2025 Regionals season!
2021/2022
The New Zealand Schools’ British Parliamentary Championships for 2021/2022 were held online on 15/16 January 2022. Congratulations to Onslow Morepork (Tony Huang and Sophie Crozier) for winning the Grand Final.
Further congratulations to the Top 10 speakers:
9th=: John Bryant (Whanganui Collegiate) and Sophie Bowmar (Columba College)
8th: Julia Randerson (Wellington High School)
7th: Heeseo Kim (Kristin School)
6th: Robert Hoskins (Hamilton Boys High School)
3rd=: Emilie Horsfall (Havelock North High School), Tom Edwards (St Andrew's College) and Guy Williams (Kristin School)
1st: Valentino Tew (Auckland Grammar School)
2020
The New Zealand Schools’ British Parliamentary Championships for 2020 were held online on 5 and 6 December 2020.
Congratulations to the finalists: Izzy Fraser & Abby Bowmar; Kunli Zhang & Vanessa Xiong; Isaac Mellis-Glynn & Jack Sandelin; and Lucy Jessep & Alexandra Lehmann.
2018
The first ever New Zealand Schools’ British Parliamentary Championships were held from the 29th – 30th at University of Auckland. Fourty teams from schools in Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Wellington, Kahurangi/Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago/Southland took part in the competition.
Teams competed in six preliminary round debates on the Saturday and Sunday. In the preliminary rounds the teams debated the following topics:
- This house believes that people should be required to obtain a parenting licence in order to have children.
- This house believes that all states should have a right to nuclear weapons.
- This house believes that Governments should prioritise urban development over assistance for regional areas.
- This house regrets the emphasis on personality in politics
- This house believes that when prisoners perform labour on public works, they should be entitled to the same rights as all workers (e.g. work is voluntary, receive minimum wage)
- This house would allow the public to elect US Supreme Court justices directly.
After the six preliminary rounds, the top eight teams were:
- Auckland Grammar 1 (Auckland region)
- Hamilton Boys (Waikato region)
- Kristin (Auckland region)
- Otago Girls (Otago-Southland region)
- Newlands (Wellington region)
- Columba (Otago-Southland region)
- Westlake Boys (Auckland region)
- St Andrews (Canterbury region)
The motion for the semi-finals was: “This house regrets the norm of monogamy. Progressing to the Grand Final was Hamilton Boys, Otago Girls, Columba and St Andrews.
We were delighted to have Dan Bidois, MP for Northcote, attend the Grand Final. The motion for the final was that “this house believes that artists (e.g. authors, film writers or directors) should not provide commentary on the interpretation of their art.” Columba College was declared the winner of the Grand Final.
The New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council is grateful to everyone who contributed to making the Championships such a memorable weekend – adjudicators, coaches, chairpeople, and convener Zachary Wong.
Here are the full list of results from NZ Schools’ BP 2018:
Winners: Lydia Joseph and Bridget Scott (Columba College)
Runners-Up:
Nicholas Goodman and Henry Yao (Hamilton Boys’ High School)
Maita Mackenzie and Sabrina Swerdloff (Otago Girls’ High School)
Megan Blackwood and Meg Longley (St Andrew’s College)
Promising speakers:
Issac Mellis-Glynn (Auckland Grammar School)
Henry Yao (Hamilton Boys’ High School)
Most Promising Speaker: Mitchell Palmer (Auckland Grammar School)
2018 New Zealand Schools’ BP Best Speaker: David Zhu (Auckland Grammar School)
2018 New Zealand Schools’ BP Top Ten Speakers:
1st: David Zhu (Auckland Grammar School)
2nd: Mitchell Palmer (Auckland Grammar School)
3rd: Nicholas Goodman (Hamilton Boys’ High School)
4th: William Price (Westlake Boys’ High School)
5th=: Sabrina Swerdloff (Otago Girls’ High School)
5th=: Matthis Bitton (Kristin School)
7th: Peter Lang (Scots College)
8th: Bridget Scott (Columba College)
9th: Lydia Joseph (Columba College)
10th: Dominic Beaton (St John’s College)