Talking their way to the top

15 December 2005

The UNSW Debating Society has won the Australian British Parliamentary Debating Championships. This is the second year in a row the Society has won the competition.

Gillian White and Alex Grey, fourth and fifth year arts/law students respectively, won the grand final as the closing opposition team against a team from the University of Sydney. The topic of the debate was 'That this House would run the Saddam Hussein case as a private court'

"Traditionally British Parliamentary debating has been male dominated, which makes our all girl team victory even sweeter," said Gillian. "The win is also very exciting as it comes in the lead up to the World Debating Championships of which six members of our club will be competing in."

The British Parliamentary style of debating, which is the style of debating used in the World Debating Championships, consists of two benches. Each bench has an opening and closing team consisting of two members. The opening team starts the debate and the closing team extends and develops the argument.

The opening and closing teams of each bench offer up a number of questions of which one or two must be addressed by the opposing team making this form of debating more interactive in style than other forms of debating.

Finalists in the Australian British Parliamentary Debating Championships included a team from the University of Melbourne and two University of Sydney teams. Gillian was also awarded the 6th Best Speaker prize in the competition.

The World Debating Championships will be held from 26 December 2005 to 5 January 2006 and take place in Dublin, Ireland. Team members are Alex Grey, Rosemary Grey, David Hume, Bart Cummings, Victor Bourke, Thomas Bowes and Julia Mansour.

For more information on the UNSW Debating Society visit www.debsoc.unsw.edu.au