An outstanding performance by the Debating team.

Last weekend, the King's 1 Team, made up of John Warman, Ben Hawke, and Cam Fraser represented the school in the 2022 Otago Regional Debating Competition. 

16 teams competed across two days, with six preliminary rounds to determine the semi-finalists. After debating such diverse motions as "assuming it were possible, this house would allow you to trade in years of your life to enhance your skills, traits or appearance" and "consider a small nation with highly aggressive neighbours (for example, Ukraine, Taiwan) that can no longer rely on powerful allies for protection, this house prefers a world where that nation has nuclear weapons,". King's emerged from the preliminary rounds undefeated on 6 wins and 1521.8 points.

Because of this initial performance, King's broke 1st to the semi-finals, facing Logan Park 1. They successfully negated the motion "this house would actively disincentivise the production of art that glorifies or establishes societal tolerance for acts that are considered morally reprehensible," winning the debate on a unanimous verdict from a panel of three judges.

Moving through to the final to face Otago Girls' 1, they affirmed the motion "given the technology to accurately measure and transfer happiness, this house would progressively tax and redistribute happiness." They were successful, with a panel of five judges unanimously awarding them the title of Regional Champions.

From this stellar performance, Cam Fraser was selected for the Otago Regional Team to compete at the New Zealand School's Debating Competition in late May. 

Ben Hawke was selected for the Gold Squad, and John Warman was selected for the Development Squad.

This is the first time King's has won the Regional Debating Tournament in 25 years and just the second time we have won in the competition's 34 year history.