Report by Abby Bowmar (Year 12) who represented the region along with Isobel Fraser (Year 12) and Colby Allen (Year 13, OBHS)

From the 24th to the 27th of May, Izzy and I attended the New Zealand Schools’ Debating Championships. We represented Otago-Southland and debated seven rounds against eleven other regional teams in what was such an exciting and enjoyable event.

We had trained for nearly two months leading up to Nationals, with our coaches and teammate, Colby Allen from Otago Boys’. We loved this entire experience, competing against other teams over Skype, completing various assignments and learning about topics from inter-sectional feminism to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Nationals was held in Wellington at the Victoria Business School, and was convened by past Columba girls, Bridget Scott and Lydia Joseph. Despite an initial loss, arguing that religious freedom shouldn’t be prioritised over anti-discrimination laws, we gained significant ground on Saturday, winning three out of three debates. Having argued that Facebook should be boycotted, that MMP has not failed New Zealand, and that widespread privacy incursions should be implemented to combat terrorism. We finished such a lovely day with a quiz night, meeting debaters from across the country. 

Affirming that developing countries should be exempt from climate change obligations, Sunday began with a close loss against Wellington, but was followed with one of our favourite debates, where we got in touch with our rural roots to negate a tax on meat in an exciting win against Waikato. Finally, we were up against Wellington again with an enjoyable sports motion, where we lost by a narrow margin in a split decision. 

At the closing dinner that night, we ended the tournament in contention to break and super happy with our performance. We genuinely had the time of our lives at Nationals. Our debating improved significantly, and we met people and made friends we will never forget. 

This was the fifth year in a row that Columba has had students in the regional team, and we would like to acknowledge the unparalleled debating opportunities we have here. We are incredibly grateful to our amazing debating club, to Ms Togneri for all her support, to our past and present coaches, and to everybody involved in Columba debating.